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PRIlSrCETON,  N.  J.  ^' 


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Section \\    \Z^  / 

Number., 


THE 
PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 


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THE 


PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 


Rev.  GEORGE  E.   MERRILL 

Author  of 
The  Story  of  the  Manuscripts,'''  "The  Reasenable  Christ,"  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 

1420  Chestnut  Street 

1894 


Copyright  1894  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


PREFACE 


Some  years  ago  the  preparation  of  a  volume 
entitled,  "The  Story  of  the  Manuscripts,"  met 
with  the  kind  favor  of  the  public,  and  proved  the 
general  interest  in  the  documentary'  evidence  for 
the  text  of  the  New  Testament,  the  theme  of  which 
it  treated.  That  volume,  I  believe,  was  the  first 
of  the  many  that  have  been  published  seeking  to 
give  in  a  popular  way  the  results  of  the  special- 
ist's labors  in  the  textual  department  of  biblical 
studies.  In  the  meantime  the  discovery  of  many 
ancient  documents  and  the  progress  of  archaeo- 
logical research,  the  appearance  of  the  Canterbury 
Revision,  the  publication  of  Westcott  and  Horl's 
Greek  New  Testament,  of  Gregor^-'s  Prolegomena 
to  Tischendorf  s  eighth  edition,  and  of  other  im- 
portant works,  as  well  as  great  advances  in  the 
critical  study  of  the  Bible,  have  enhanced  the 
public  interest  in  the  whole  subject  of  the  docu- 
mentary sources  of  the  sacred  text.  To  meet  a 
desire  frequently  expressed,  this  volume  has  been 
written,  bringing  the  story  down  to  the  present 
time  and  treating  of  the  entire  Bible.  This  work 
is  wholly  independent  of  the  former  book  to 
which  reference  has  been  made,  pursuing  a  differ- 
ent plan  and  being  independently  written,  and  I 
do  not  know  of  any  book  that  covers  exactly  the 
same  ground. 


6  PREFACE 

It  would  be  impossible  to  mention  in  detail  the 
multitude  of  works  which  have  been  consulted  in 
the  preparation  of  these  pages,  but  in  the  most 
important  instances  they  have  been  named  in 
appended  notes.  I  wish  to  acknowledge  my 
indebtedness  to  all  published  sources  of  informa- 
tion which  I  have  found  accessible,  and  especially 
to  the  favor  shown  me  by  the  great  libraries  which 
have  given  me  access  to  original  documents  and 
valuable  y^^  similes. 

The  reproduction  in  this  volume  of  whole  pages 
of  text  in  fac  simile  has  been  deemed  a  better 
method  of  illustration,  than  to  present  plates 
containing  only  a  few  lines  of  text  of  the  original 
size.  The  reader  by  this  method  gets  a  better 
idea  of  the  appearance  of  the  original  page,  and 
while  the  exigencies  of  a  modern  book  demand  a 
great  reduction  in  the  size  of  they^^  simile^  the 
use  of  a  lens  will  at  once  restore  the  text  to  its 
proper  dimensions. 

We  cannot  know  too  much  about  the  Bible. 
Light  thrown  upon  its  pages  is  sure  to  blend  with 
the  light  that  shines  from  its  pages,  and  in  the 
resplendent  radiance  of  its  truth  we  cannot  fail  to 
see  the  way  of  life.  The  history  of  the  Bible 
merely  as  a  book  is  of  profound  interest  and  im- 
portance, but  that  history  only  lends  itself  to  the 
better  knowledge  of  what  the  Bible  really  is  in 
its  content,  and  the  message  of  the  book  appeals 
with  clearer  voice  to  our  reverence  and  our  love. 

G.  E.  M. 

NewtoHy  Mass.,  October,  i8g4. 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Bible  of  Jesus  and  the  Apostles,  ....       ii 

CHAPTER  n. 

The  Bible  of  the  Christian  Church,   ....       28 

CHAPTER  HI. 

The  Hebrew  Manuscripts, 40 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Hebrew  Manuscripts  (Continued),    ....       66 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Greek  Translations, 81 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Targums  and  the  Talmud, 94 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Other   Versions   and    Literature, 109 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Materials  for  the  New  Testament  Text,     .     .     119 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Classes  and  Characteristics  of  Manuscripts,     .     138 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Science  and  the  Critics, 150 

7 


8  CONTKNTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XL 
The  Two  Oldest  Greek  Manuscripts,    .     .     .     .     171 

CHAPTER  Xn. 
The  Great  Uncials  of  the  Fifth  Century,    .     .     194 

CHAPTER  Xni. 
A   Corrupt   Codex   and   an   Illustrated  Manu- 
script,   201 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Curious  Fragments  and  Discoveries,     .     .     .     .     212 

CHAPTER  XV. 
The  Cursives  or  Minuscules, 220 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Versions  and  Fathers, 226 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Later  Discoveries, 250 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Illustrations    of    Criticism, 265 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Conclusion, 280 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


1.  The  Convent  of  St.  Catherine,   .    .   Frontispiece 

2.  Hebrew  Scrolls, 43 

3.  Codex  Ephraemi,  C 145 

(A  Palimpsest.) 

4.  Group  of  Biblical  Scholars, 157 

5    Codex  Vatic  ANUS,  B 171 

6.  Codex  Friderico-Augustanus, 183 

(Codex  Sinaiticus) 

7.  Codex  Alexandrinus,  A 195 

8.  Jesus  Cleansing  the  Temple  and  The  Good 

Samaritan, 208 

9.  Codex  W"*,  Fragments  ON  Glass, .214 


THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FArfH 


THE  BIBLE  OF  JESUS  AND  THE  APOSTLES 

ST.  PAUL,  "the  aged,"  was  in  prison  at  Rome 
when  he  wrote  his  second  letter  to  Timothy, 
beseeching  him  to  come  to  him  at  once,  "before  win- 
ter,"  after  which  it  might  be  too  late.  One  little  pas- 
sage in  that  letter  is  pathetic :  "  The  cloak  that  I  left 
at  Troas  with  Carpus,  when  thou  comest  bring  with 
thee,  and  the  books,  especially  the  parchments." 
The  old  cloak  would  be  needed  in  the  prison  in 
the  coming  winter ;  but  while  its  folds  would  be 
drawn  close  about  the  apostle's  form,  the  inner 
man — the  great  soul — would  be  quickening  its  life 
by  the  perusal  of  the  books,  and  most  of  all  the 
parchments,  which  it  had  been  necessary  to  leave 
in  the  house  of  a  friend  far  away  on  the  Asian 
shore.  What  were  these  books  and  parchments  it 
may  be  idle  to  conjecture,  and  yet  we  know  the 
spirit  of  the  man  and  shall  not  go  far  astray  if  we 
think  of  him  as  longing  for  the  books  of  his  faith, 

II 


12  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

dear  to  him  in  their  mere  externals,  even  as  we 
come  to  love  our  Bibles  worn  with  much  using, 
and  perhaps  marked  everywhere  in  their  margins 
with  the  signs,  familiar  to  our  eyes,  which  we 
have  put  against  favorite  texts.  The  books  were 
biblia — bibles,  scrolls  of  papyrus  ;  for  biblia  was 
the  Greek  word  referring  to  the  papyrus  plant 
and  the  books  made  out  of  its  stalk  when  pre- 
pared for  writing.  The  parchments  were  mem- 
branes^ if  we  transfer  the  Greek  word  used  in  the 
passage  ;  but  we  shall  understand  it  better  by  the 
XxdiVi^dXxon.— parchments^  the  skins  of  animals  care- 
fully dressed,  upon  which  the  text  of  the  book  or 
letter  was  written.  It  is  not  very  likely  that  Paul 
was  now  longing  for  any  of  the  classical  writings 
of  Greece  or  Rome.  He  could  have  gotten  those 
heathen  documents  much  more  easily  than  by 
sending  to  Troas  for  them.  It  was  not  to  the  old 
books  of  Gamaliel's  school  in  Jerusalem  that  he 
was  now  turning,  except  as  some  of  these  had  been 
the  religious  books  of  his  fathers,  the  revered 
Scriptures  of  the  Jews.  Most  likely  these  scrolls 
of  papyrus  and  parchment  were  copies  of  some  of 
the  Old  Testament  books,  and  possibly  some  brief 
and  fundamental  records  from  which  came  later 
some  of  the  writings  now  known  as  the  New 
Testament,  memoranda  of  oral  teachings  by  some 
of  the  twelve  who  had  companied  with  Jesus. 
Of  this  we  can  only  conjecture,  but  the  thought 


THE   BIBLE  OF  JESUS  AND  THE  APOSTLES    1 3 

suggests  inquiry,  and  the  question  leaps  to  the 
lips  :  What  was  the  Bible  of  the  apostles  ?  What 
indeed  was  the  Bible  of  Jesus,  from  which  he 
reasoned  with  the  doctors  in  the  temple  in  his 
boyhood  and  by  which  he  fortified  himself  against 
temptation  and  endured  even  unto  the  death  of 
the  cross  ?  For  with  his  last  breath  he  cried  out 
in  the  language  of  a  psalm,  and  the  incidents  of 
his  last  hours  were  fulfillments  of  ancient  prophe- 
cies. 

The  Bible  of  Jesus  was  the  Old  Testament  as 
we  have  it,  containing  the  books  which  we  recog- 
nize as  of  sacred  authority,  and  probably  no  others, 
as  we  shall  soon  show  more  particularly. 

This  Bible,  however,  was  in  two  forms.  It  was 
in  the  Hebrew  language,  and  in  this  form  was 
always  used  in  public  worship  in  the  synagogues 
of  Palestine  ;  but  it  had  also  been  translated  into 
Greek,  and  in  this  form  was  the  Bible  of  common 
and  private  use.  This  translation  was  begun  in 
Alexandria  about  the  year  b.  c.  275,  and  finished 
about  the  year  b.  c.  130.  It  was  called  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  or  the  Seventy. 

But  why  was  this  translation  in  such  general 
use?  Was  not  the  native  tongue  of  the  Jews 
Hebrew  ?  Did  they  not  dwell  in  their  own  land 
without  the  need  of  a  translation  in  which  to  read 
their  own  Bible?  And  if  the  Jews  who  were 
scattered  abroad  understood  some  other  language 


14  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

better  than  the  Hebrew,  why  should  that  strange 
language  make  its  way  into  the  Holy  Land  and 
into  the  very  oracles  of  the  home  country  and 
religion  ? 

The  answer  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  Jews 
in  Palestine  as  well  as  elsewhere  had  almost  ceased 
to  speak  their  own  language,  and  that  another 
tongue  had  become  the  means  of  daily  communi- 
cation, and  still  another  had  domesticated  itself 
among  them.  The  Hebrew  was  retained  as  a 
sacred  language,  and  perhaps  was  often  used  in 
formal  address,  but  it  had  long  since  passed  out 
of  common  use.  The  Aramaic  had  supplanted  it 
altogether. 

"  How  and  when  the  change  was  effected," 
says  Schiirer,^  "cannot  now  be  ascertained.  At 
any  rate  it  was  not  the  exiles  who  returned 
from  Babylon  who  brought  the  Aramaic  thence, 
for  the  post-exilian  literature  of  the  Israelites 
is  also  chiefly  Hebrew.  Nor  was  the  Aramaic 
dialect  of  Palestine  the  Eastern,  or  Babylonian, 
but  the  Western  Aramaic.  Hence  it  must  have 
penetrated  gradually  to  Palestine  from  the  North. " 
Indeed  it  has  been  a  common  error  to  suppose 
that  the  new  language  was  domesticated  in  Pales- 
tine only  after  the  Exile  and  as  one  of  its  results. 
But,  as  Professor  Schiirer  intimates  in  our  quota- 

1  "  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Christ,"  Vol.  II., 
ch.  I,  pp.  8-IO. 


THE   BIBLE  OF  JESUS  AND  THE   APOSTLES    1 5 

tion,  and  as  Sayce  shows/  and  as  Kantzsch  dis- 
tinctly says  :  *'  The  Jews  could  not  take  a  dialect 
from  Babylon  which  was  not  spoken  there  !  "  ^  In 
fact  the  West  Aramaic  was  the  dialect  spoken  be- 
tween the  upper  Euphrates  and  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  and  in  very  early  times  it  began  to  advance 
southward  and  to  dispossess  the  southern  native 
dialects  until  it  became  the  common  language  in 
Syria,  Palestine,  and  the  adjacent  countries  on  the 
east.  About  the  middle  of  the  second  century 
before  Christ  it  was  quite  in  the  ascendency  as  the 
spoken  language,  and  even  began  to  appear  in  for- 
mal literature,  as  in  some  passages  of  the  book  of 
Daniel  and  other  writings.  But  if  the  Aramaic  had 
achieved  this  position  as  the  common  language  of  the 
people  before  Christ  was  born,  the  old  Hebrew  still 
held  its  place  in  the  synagogues,  in  literature,  and 
probably  was  to  some  degree  known  by  the  people 
at  large.  The  zeal  of  the  learned,  and  the  rever- 
ence for  the  sacred  speech  of  the  divine  oracles, 
served  to  keep  the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  alive, 
and  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it 
occupied  in  the  time  of  Jesus  such  a  position  as 
that  now  held  by  the  Greek  and  the  Latin.     In 

^  "Introduction  to  the  Books  of  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and   Esther," 

p.  37. 

'  «  Hebraica"  (Quarterly),  Vol.  I.,  No.  2  (Oct.,  1884),  article, "  The 
Aramaic  Language,"  by  Prof.  E.  Kautzsch,  D.  D.  (Tubingen), 
translated  by  Prof.  C,  R.  Brown,  D.  D  ,  pp.  iii,  112. 


l6  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  EAITH 

this  sense  it  probably  was  not  a  "  dead  language/* 
Delitzscli^  believed  that  *'onr  I^ord  and  his 
apostles  thought  and  spoke  for  the  most  part  in 
Hebrew,"  though  that  they  ordinarily  spoke  in 
Hebrew  may  be  more  than  questioned.  But  cer- 
tainly the  Hebrew  was  still  used  in  writings  that 
the  people  would  be  expected  to  understand. 
''The  inscriptions  on  coins,  the  epitaphs,  the 
liturgic  prayers  were  Hebrew.  The  form  of  the 
laws  was  Hebrew,  as  appears  from  their  codifica- 
tion in  the  Mishna ;  also  the  book  in  which,  as 
Papias  says,  Matthew  had  collected  the  sermons 
of  the  Lord,  was  written  in  the  *  Hebrew  dialect,'  " 
and  Prof.  Delitzsch  considers  this  to  have  been 
not  the  Aramaic,  but  the  "holy  language,  the 
language  of  the  temple  worship,  of  synagogical 
and  domestic  prayer ;  of  all  formulas  of  benedic- 
tion, of  the  traditional  law."  And  yet,  even  if  the 
Hebrew  had  not  wholly  passed  away,  we  are  quite 
sure  that  the  Aramaic  had  driven  it  out  from  the 
common  speech,  and  from  all  common  usage. 

It  might  seem,  therefore,  that  there  was  need 
of  a  translation  of  the  Bible  from  Hebrew  into  the 
Aramaic,  and  so  far  as  we  have  pursued  the  in- 
quiry it   does   not  yet  appear  why  the   common 

^  In  the  "  Hebrew  New  Testament  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society"  (Leipzig,  1883),  quoted  by  Prof.  C.  R.  Brown  in  the"  He- 
braica"  (Quarterly),  I.,  2,  p.  loi,  note.  In  opposition,  see  Prof.  C. 
H.  Toy,  "  Quotations  in  the  New  Testament,"  Intro.,  ^  I.,  i. 


THE   BIBLE  OF  JESUS   AND  THE  APOSTLES    1 7 

Bible  of  the  time  should  be  in  Greek.  In  fact  no 
Aramaic  Bible  was  made  at  this  time  for  the  use 
of  the  people.  There  was  an  intense  prejudice 
against  it  until  a  much  later  date.  Nor  was  there 
any  real  need  of  it,  for  another  medium  was  even 
more  ready  to  serve  as  interpreter,  namely,  the 
Greek  tongue. 

During  three  centuries  Palestine  had  been 
accustomed  to  hear  several  languages  within  its 
borders,  and  the  chief  of  these  was  Greek.  Alexan- 
der's arms  had  subjugated  the  world.  In  the  land 
of  the  Jews,  as  in  Babylonia  and  Egypt  and  all  the 
surrounding  lands,  the  Macedonian  conqueror  had 
established  his  sway.  Caesarea,  the  second  city 
in  Palestine,  was  almost  wholly  peopled  by  men 
who  spoke  the  Greek  tongue.  Sebonitis,  Scyth- 
opolis,  Gaza,  Askelon,  Sebaste,  and  many  other 
cities  in  the  land  were  Greek,  while  beyond 
Jordan  the  centers  of  population  were  principally 
Greek.  In  Egypt,  Alexandria  was  the  leading 
city,  and  here  an  immense  number  of  Jews  had 
been  colonized,  so  that  their  familiarity  with  the 
Greek  culture  would  naturally  give  an  additional 
impulse  to  the  introduction  of  the  language  into 
their  native  land,  as  there  was  always  more  or  less 
intercourse  between  the  colonists  and  the  home 
country.  When  the  Roman  power  came  to  the 
first  place  it  did  not  negative  the  ascendenc}'  of 
Greek  culture,  for  in  Rome  itself  the  fashion  of 


1 8  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

the  day  was  for  everything  Hellenic.  Josephus, 
in  ''The  Antiquities"  (B.  XV.,  8),  speaks  of  the 
course  of  Herod,  and  that  chapter  narrates  "  How 
ten  men  of  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem  made  a  con- 
spiracy against  Herod  for  the  foreign  practices  he 
had  introduced,  which  was  a  transgression  of  the 
laws  of  their  country  ;  and  concerning  the  building 
of  Sebaste  and  Caesarea,  and  other  edifices  of 
Herod."  This  was  the  Herod  who  was  king 
when  Christ  was  born,  and  while  he  left  no  foreign 
custom  or  acquisition  neglected  by  which  he 
could  enhance  the  glory  of  his  reign,  the  Greek 
influence  was  paramount,  as  is  seen  from  his  giving 
Greek  names  to  the  cities,  even  Samaria,  when 
rebuilt  in  honor  of  Augustus,  receiving  the 
name  Sebaste.  Indeed,  during  all  the  occupation 
of  Palestine  by  the  Roman  armies,  the  Greek  had 
not  been  driven  out  by  the  I^atin.  The  final 
result  of  the  rivalry  of  these  tongues  in  Palestine 
was  more  likely  to  be  the  general  adoption  of  the 
Greek  than  of  either  of  the  others,  lyatin  or 
Aramaic.  The  Jew  did  not  understand  Latin  ; 
the  Roman  was  not  familiar  with  Aramaic ;  but 
the  Greek  tongue  was  comparatively  familiar  to 
both,  and  thus  became  the  natural  means  of  com- 
munication. It  was  exactly  what  had  happened 
formerly  in  the  case  of  Aramaic.  Greek  was  now 
the  lingua  Franca^  the  language  of  business  and 
diplomacy,  well  known  in  common  life. 


THE  BIBLE  OF  JESUS  AND  THE  APOSTLES    1 9 

If  we  seek  an  illustration  among  modern  na- 
tions of  its  condition  at  the  beginning  of  our  era, 
Palestine  may  be  described  as  having  some  like- 
ness to  Switzerland,  or  Belgium,  at  the  present 
time.  In  Switzerland,  French  and  German  are 
common,  while  a  patois  peculiar  to  certain  sec- 
tions is  often  heard.  In  a  recent  summer,  the 
writer's  family  was  charmingly  entertained  by 
friends  in  Antwerp,  and  the  native  Flemish  was 
spoken  by  domestics  and  others  of  their  class, 
while  French  was  used  among  the  members  of  the 
family  and  in  all  ordinary  conversation  in  polite 
circles,  and  the  father  wrote  his  books  in  French ; 
meanwhile  the  older  members  of  the  household 
spoke  English,  and  it  was  bravely  attempted  even 
by  the  children. 

So  in  Palestine,  the  several  languages,  Hebrew, 
Aramaic,  Greek,  Latin,  performed  their  functions. 
We  find  official  inscriptions  either  in  Latin  or 
Greek,  or  both.  Recently  a  part  of  the  old  "  wall 
of  partition  "  between  the  court  of  the  Gentiles 
and  the  courts  of  the  Jews  in  the  temple  was  dis- 
covered, and  it  bore  a  warning  in  Greek  against 
trespassing  beyond  that  boundary.  Greek  was 
upon  coins  minted  for  use  among  the  Jews.  The 
twelve  disciples  had  Greek  names  among  them, 
•and  the  inscription  on  the  cross  was  in  Hebrew, 
and  Greek,  and  Latin.  Probably  the  sum  of  the 
whole  matter  may  be  correctly  written  thus  :    All 


20  THE  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

the  native  Jews  spoke  Aramaic ;  most  of  the 
better  educated  were  very  familiar  with  Greek, 
and  very  many  of  the  common  people  could  speak 
it ;  some  could  read  and  speak  both  Greek  and 
I^atin ;  while  the  ancient  Hebrew  was  chiefly 
beard  only  in  the  synagogues  and  in  formal  ad- 
dress. Such  a  state  of  affairs  gave  ready  access  to 
the  Bible  in  the  Greek  language. 

The  Greek  Bible,  however,  was  not  made  for 
the  Jews  in  Palestine,  but  for  those  who  dwelt  in 
great  numbers  in  Alexandria,  and  in  other  parts 
of  the  world.  The  story  of  its  making  will  be 
told  upon  a  later  page,  when  the  characteristics 
and  value  of  the  Septuagint  shall  be  considered 
at  length  ;  but  it  is  only  necessary  to  note  here, 
that  having  been  made^  it  easily  came  into  use, 
even  in  Palestine,  and  rendered  unnecessary  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  Aramaic. 
It  was  the  people's  Bible,  easily  obtained,  far 
cheaper  than  the  Hebrew  scrolls,  and  doubtless  it 
had  wide  circulation,  coming  into  many  homes,  at 
least  in  some  of  its  parts,  and  securing  a  firm  hold 
upon  the  affections  of  all. 

But  this  Greek  Bible  which  originated  in  Alex- 
andria had  many  other  books  in  it  besides  those 
which  we  find  in  our  English  Bibles.  These 
books  are  known  under  the  term  Apocrypha, 
which  meant  in  the  first  instance,  simply  "with- 
drawn from  publicity."     The  term  was  first  ap- 


THE  BIBLE  OF  JESUS  AND  THE  APOSTLES    21 

plied  to  the  rolls  which  were  put  away  because 
they  were  worn  out,  or  had  faults  in  the  writing  ; 
but  then  in  a  more  metaphorical  sense  it  was  ap- 
plied to  a  book  not  suitable  for  public  reading  ; 
and  still  later  to  indicate  a  lack  of  genuineness  or 
authenticity.  It  was  in  the  last  sense  that  the 
term  was  applied  to  those  books  connected  with 
the  Old  Testament,  for  though  they  were  always 
held  in  some  esteem  in  Alexandria,  they  were 
never  fully  recognized  in  Palestine  as  a  real  part 
of  the  Bible.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  the 
common  people  in  Palestine  may  have  known 
very  little  of  these  extra  books.  In  the  whole 
New  Testament  there  is  not  one  well-defined  quo- 
tation from  them,  though  in  a  few  instances  pas- 
sages might  seem  to  have  a  suggestion  from  apoc- 
ryphal sources,  and  in  one  case  a  possible  reference 
to  the  book  of  Enoch  is  made.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  even  with  the  Septuagint  in  com- 
mon use,  the  various  books  were  not  all  included 
in  one  roll  or  volume,  but  were  in  separate  por- 
tions, and  although  a  canonical  book  might  have 
an  apocryphal  book  appended  to  it  in  the  same 
scroll,  yet  the  main  and  leading  place  in  the 
reader's  mind  would  always  be  given  to  the  law, 
or  the  psalms,  or  other  canonical  writing,  so  that 
the  apocryphal  writings  might  be  almost  un- 
known. It  is  significant  that  Jesus  did  not  quote 
from  them  at  all,  and  that  any  reference  to  them, 


22  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

except  perhaps  in  one  instance  in  the  Epistle  of 
Jude,  is  entirely  wanting  in  the  New  Testament. 
But  the  thorough  familiarity  of  Jesus  and  the 
apostles  with  the  generally  accepted  books  of  the 
Greek  Bible  is  plain  from  the  quotations,  since 
Jesus  clearly  used  the  Greek  in  thirty-three  out 
of  thirty-seven  passages  to  which  he  referred. 
And  St.  Paul  cries  out  (Rom.  4:3),"  What  saith 
the  Scripture  ?"  and  then  proceeds  to  quote  ex- 
actly from  the  Septuagint,  as  indeed  it  was  his 
usual  habit  to  do.  Of  three  hundred  and  fifty 
quotations  in  the  New  Testament,  quite  three 
hundred  appear  to  be  from  the  Greek  and 
not  from  the  Hebrew  Bible.  "The  Scripture," 
therefore,  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  was  a  term  ap- 
plied equally  to  the  original  Hebrew  and  to 
the  common  Greek  translation.  Plainly  the 
truths  the  spirit  beneath  the  mere  letter  of 
Scripture,  was  regarded  as  the  essential  thing, 
and  there  was  no  servile  attachment  to  the  mere 
letter  itself  Yet,  as  will  be  seen,  the  later  regard 
for  the  letter  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  was  extreme, 
as  aflfecting  the  integrity  of  the  text  containing 
the  truth,  and  there  were  probably  few  chances  of 
change  in  this  respect  at  the  time  now  under  con- 
sideration. 

But  if  the  Bible  of  Jesus  in  the  Hebrew  and 
the  Greek  contained  the  books  which  we  have  in 
our  Bibles,  and  practically  only  those,  it  must  be 


THE   BIBLE  OF  JESUS  AND  THE  APOSTLES    23 

noted  that  the  number  and  the  order  of  the  books 
in  the  Hebrew  Bible  are  very  different  from  those 
which  we  know.  In  the  English  Bible  are  thirty- 
nine  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  while  in  the 
Hebrew  there  are  but  twenty-four.  This  differ- 
ence in  number  was  brought  about  in  the  Hebrew 
Bible  by  counting  in  each  case  as  one  book  the 
two  books  of  Kings,  the  two  of  Samuel,  the  twelve 
Minor  Prophets,  the  books  of  Kza  and  Nehemiah, 
and  the  two  of  Chronicles.  The  Septuagint  made 
the  number  larger,^  and  was  followed  in  the  Vul- 
gate of  Jerome,  and  so  transmitted  to  the  English 
Bible  the  number  and  order  that  we  now  have. 
As  for  the  order  of  the  books  in  Hebrew,  while  it 
differed  in  various  manuscripts,  it  stands  in  our 
Hebrew  Bibles,  first,  in  three  great  divisions — the 
Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Sacred  Writings.  It 
was  in  this  order  too,  that  they  became  of  recog- 
nized authority  in  the  canon,  or  settled  list  of 
sacred  books,  the  Law  having  been  most  anciently 
received,  then  the  prophetical  writings,  and  prob- 
ably at  a  considerably  later  date  the  remaining 
books,  although  there  can  be  no  question  that 
many  Scriptures  were  used  for  religious  purposes 
long  before  the  list  was  thus  made  up  and  the 

^  Josephus  (c.  Ap.  I.,  7,  9)  reckoned  only  twenty-two,  but  by  an 
arbitrary  division  to  make  the  number  correspond  with  the  letters  of 
the  Hebrew  alphabet ;  he  names,  however,  no  other  books  than  those 
in  the  canon. 


24  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

titles  to  its  several  parts  applied.  This  triple 
division  we  find  recognized  in  tlie  New  Testament 
by  frequent  appeal  to  the  Ivaw  and  the  Prophets, 
and  less  often  to  the  Writings,  which  are  generally 
referred  to  under  the  title,  the  Psalms,  the  first 
book  of  the  third  class.  The  Hebrew  Bible  that 
Jesus  knew  was  arranged  therefore,  with  minor 
variations,  as  follows  : 

I.  The  Law. 

Genesis,    Exodus,  lycviticus,  Numbers, 
Deuteronomy. 
II.  The  Prophets. 

The  Former  Prophets:  Joshua,  Judges, 
Samuel,  Kings. 

The  Latter  Prophets  :  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Kzekiel  ;  and  considered  as  one  book,  Ro- 
sea, Joel,  Amos,  Obadiah,  Jonah,  Micah, 
Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Zephaniah,  Haggai, 
Zechariah,  Malachi. 
III.  The  Writings. 

Psalms,  Proverbs,  Job,  the  Song  of 
Songs,  Ruth,  Lamentations,  Kcclesiastes, 
Esther,  Daniel,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  as  one 
book.  Chronicles. 

The  definiteness  and  security  of  this  list  of 
books  was  especially  guaranteed  in  Palestine.  An 
influential  school  of  learned  teachers  maintained 


THE   BIBLE   OF  JESUS   AND   THE  APOSTLES    25 

with  strict  conscience  the  study  of  the  Hebrew 
text.  Upon  a  future  page  we  shall  speak  of  the 
exacting  safeguards  with  which  the  later  repro- 
duction of  copies  of  the  sacred  books  was  sur- 
rounded. But  quite  apart  from  the  mechanical 
labor  by  which  the  transmission  of  the  writings 
was  secured,  the  learned  and  the  public  sentiment 
in  Palestine  was  wholly  against  the  change  in  any 
respect  of  the  duly  recognized  canon.  In  Alex- 
andria, and  in  the  other  lands  foreign  to  Palestine 
where  the  Septuagint  was  used,  there  was  a  laxity 
of  thought  and  practice  concerning  the  limits  of 
inspired  truth.  ^  In  some  places  certain  of  the 
apocryphal  books  were  conceded  a  greater  au- 
thority than  others,  and  certain  books  that  did  not 
appear  even  in  the  apocryphal  list  were  regarded 
by  some  teachers  as  of  great  religious,  if  not  of 
inspired  value.  But  in  Palestine  such  commen- 
taries and  extra-biblical  works  were  not  received. 
Not  even  a  written  translation  into  Aramaic  of 
the  acknowledged  books  was  allowed,  and  it  is 
probable  that  even  in  the  time  of  Jesus  there  was 
a  feelinof  which  culminated  later  in  the  intense 
jealousy  that  did  not  suffer  the  interpreter  in  the 
synagogue  to  write  and  read  his  translation,  but 
obliged  him  to  deliver  it  without  notes,  lest  the 
written  version  should  enter  into  competition  with 

^  Dr.  Franz  Biihl,  "  Canon  and  Text  of  the  Old  Testament,"  p.  45. 
T.  &  T.  Clark.     Also  W.  Sanday,  "  Inspiration,"  p.  91,  seq. 
C 


26  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

the  Hebrew.  If  the  supposition  of  some  writers 
is  true,  that  an  Aramaic  version  existed  but  is 
lost,  it  certainly  was  not  in  writing,  and  could 
only  have  been  an  oral  repetition  of  the  transla- 
tions of  the  synagogues  which  had  fastened  them- 
selves upon  the  minds  of  the  common  people. 
But  there  is  no  strong  evidence  even  for  this  oral 
translation,  and  probably  it  did  not  exist  as  any 
definite  attempt  to  present  the  whole  Scripture  in 
the  language  of  the  people.  It  can  be  easily  seen 
how  with  such  prejudices  and  watchcare  there 
was  no  opportunity  either  for  the  loss  of  any  books 
of  the  canon  or  for  the  addition  of  others. 

The  Bible  of  Jesus  was  also  the  Bible  of  his 
apostles  and  of  the  earliest  Christian  church.  For 
a  long  time  the  need  of  no  other  Scriptures  was 
realized.  The  personal  presence  of  the  apostles 
or  their  companions  and  pupils  made  their  oral 
instruction  the  natural  method  of  imparting  the 
truths  of  the  new  kingdom.  No  Christian  Jew 
yet  dreamed  that  a  new  body  of  writings  was  des- 
tined to  supplant  the  venerated  covenant  of  Israel 
and  become  the  supreme  written  authority  of  the 
Christian  world.  In  fact,  the  old  Scriptures  had 
now  acquired  a  fresh  value,  and  the  attention  was 
largely  directed  to  tracing  the  prophecies  and 
types  by  which  the  Messiah  was  foretold.  Preach- 
ing and  teaching  were  for  a  time  less  directed  to 
the  development  of  doctrine,  in  the  sense  in  which 


THE   BIBLE   OF  JESUS  AND  THE   APOSTLES    27 

we  use  the  word,  than  to  the  historical  memoranda 
of  Christ's  life  and  the  comparison  of  these  with 
ancient  prediction.  The  discourses  in  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  indicate  this  very  clearly.  And  it 
was  only  as  the  life  of  the  new  church  was  un- 
folded that  occasion  arose  for  written  Epistles  and 
Gospels.  The  consideration  of  this  later  and  dis- 
tinctively Christian  literature  is  deferred  to  the 
following  chapter.  Thus  far  it  is  seen  that  the 
Bible  used  by  Jesus  and  the  apostles  was  only  the 
Old  Testament  as  we  have  it  in  the  Hebrew  and 
in  the  Greek  languages. 


II 

THE  BIBLE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

'^rilE  Christian  church  inherited  from  Judaism 
A  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament.  An 
extended  period,  more  than  four  hundred  years, 
had  elapsed  since  Malachi  prophesied,  and  a  very- 
long  time  had  gone  since  the  last  word  of  the  re- 
ceived books  had  been  written  down,  as  probably 
in  the  book  of  Daniel.  Great  and  stirring  events 
had  occurred  in  Palestine.  Last  of  all,  Jesus  had 
lived  and  died  and  passed  into  the  glory  of  his 
Father.  He  left  his  followers  in  possession  of 
their  old  Bible,  doubly  sanctified  to  them  by  his 
own  use,  quotation,  and  authority.  Its  value 
was  not  lessened,  but  increased,  as  he  had 
confirmed  its  truth,  fulfilled  its  predictions  of 
the  Messiah,  applied  its  teachings  to  his  own  life, 
and  expounded  them  for  his  disciples.  He  had 
fed  his  soul  upon  its  words,  and  had  unfolded  its 
spirit  by  his  divine  insight.  A  book  of  any  kind 
is  not  merely  a  verbal  text,  but  rather  the  thought 
that  may  be  either  adequately  or  inadequately  ex- 
pressed by  the  words  :  a  book  is  the  77ieanmg  of  it^ 
and  this  Jesus  had  wrought  out  in  his  discourses 
until  the  Law  and  the  Prophets  had  taken  on  a  new 
28 


THE   BIBLE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH      29 

glory,  and  the  Psalms  had  become  the  expression 
of  spiritual  moods  which  no  Jewish  rabbi  had  yet 
seen  or  felt. 

But  Jesus  had  done  even  more  than  this.  He 
had  shown  how  the  revelation  of  the  old  time  was 
progressive  and  partial  and  incomplete  ;  how 
there  were  yet  many  things  to  be  revealed  that 
even  he  could  not  tell  his  disciples,  because  they 
were  not  prepared  for  them.  As  in  his  sermon  on 
the  mount,  and  in  his  discourse  on  marriage  and 
divorce,  he  had  shown  that  some  of  the  Mosaic 
laws  had  been  given  to  meet  only  a  crude  state  of 
society,  and  "for  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts." 
No  longer  was  strict  retribution  to  be  visited  by 
man  upon  man,  as  in  the  old  saying :  *'  An  eye  for 
an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth."  No  more  was 
family  life  to  be  easily  broken,  its  bonds  to  be 
shattered  at  the  caprice  of  husband  or  wife,  as  the 
law  was  defined  by  the  rabbis  in  the  time  of  Christ. 
A  better  law  was  now  to  obtain,  and  as  Jesus  an- 
nounced it,  he  showed  how  Moses  had  been  fet- 
tered by  circumstances,  and  the  revelation  given 
through  him  had  been  adapted  to  the  needs  of  that 
remoter  time.  The  new  Christianity  would  need 
new  laws,  and  his  Spirit  was  to  appear  in  all. 
Men  were  to  go  and  preach  and  teach.  The  future 
and  all  the  world  lay  before  his  disciples.  As  time 
went  on  his  apostles  would  be  taught  how  to  declare 
his  truth,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  would  lead  them. 


30  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

In  confirmation  of  this  promise,  one  emergency 
after  anotlier  was  met  by  the  illumined  and  inspired 
mind  of  the  church,  and  a  new  body  of  writings 
grew  up.  It  grew  up  exactly  as  the  Old  Testa- 
ment had  come  into  existence,  only  in  a  much 
shorter  period.  Jesus  had  promised  his  inspiration 
for  their  future  work  to  the  apostles,  and  no  small 
part  of  that  work  was  to  be,  as  time  showed,  the 
writing  of  historical  memoranda  and  of  letters  for 
the  use  of  the  new  churches  and  the  instruction 
of  Christendom  at  large  through  coming  centuries. 
As  occasion  arose  the  promise  of  inspiration  was 
verified.  Again  holy  men  spake  and  wrote  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  yet 
it  was  a  very  natural  course  by  which  the  various 
books  of  the  New  Testament  came  into  being. 
The  personality  of  the  writer  was  more  than  a  mere 
channel  for  the  flowing  of  the  life-giving  stream. 
He  was  not  made  a  mere  helpless  machine  by  this 
strange  inspiration  from  above.  Nor  did  the  Divine 
impulse  over-ride  the  circumstances  that  were  the 
immediate  occasion  of  the  writing,  or  ignore  the 
needs  of  the  near  and  the  few  for  the  sake  of 
making  the  truth  applicable  to  the  many  and  the 
far-away.  The  inspiration  of  the  writers  of  the 
Old  Testament  had  left  them  free  in  matters  of 
style,  modes  of  thought,  form  of  composition,  so 
that  the  characteristics  of  the  age  and  of  the 
author  appear  in  every  book  of  the  thirty-nine, 


THE   BIBLE   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH      3 1 

while  in  some  of  them  the  compiler's  hand  is  evi- 
dent, and  has  not  availed  to  obliterate  the  many 
differences  by  which  the  authors  themselves  were 
originally  distinguished.  In  like  manner  the  in- 
spiration of  the  New  Testament  is,  so  to  speak, 
natural.  There  is  not  a  book  of  which  the  same 
supernatural  source  and  natural  method  may  not 
be  seen.  Indeed  the  course  of  growth  and  the 
general  features  in  the  composition  of  the  New 
Testament  are  in  most  respects  exactly  comparable 
with  those  of  the  Old  Testament,  with  the  one 
important  difference  that  the  Christian  books 
represent  only  a  single  age,  and  were  comprised 
within  a  narrow  limit  of  less  than  a  half-century, 
while  the  Jewish  books  covered  an  enormous  lapse 
of  time  and  marked  widely  separated  periods. 
Many  of  the  Old  Testament  writings  also  have  the 
character  of  compilations,  which  is  not  seen  in  the 
New  Testament ;  the  Psalms,  for  example,  having 
many  authors,  and  showing  conclusively  the  hands 
of  compilers ;  the  books  of  Moses  also  being  the 
collection  of  much  diverse  material,  and  such 
compositions  as  the  book  of  Proverbs  declaring  in 
themselves  their  various  sources.  Many  other  im- 
portant questions  of  date  and  authorship  are  the 
subjects  of  learned  conjectures  ;  but  it  is  manifestly 
not  the  province  of  these  pages  to  enter  into  the 
discussion  of  these  questions.  It  is  sufficient  to 
note    them,    and    to   illustrate    the   remoter   and 


32  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

slower  growth  of  the  Old  Testament  by  tracing  in 
a  general  way  that  of  the  New  Testament. 

The  teaching  and  preaching  of  the  apostles, 
the  repetition  by  many  others  of  the  story  of  the 
divine  life  as  they  had  witnessed  it,  must  have 
created  a  very  considerable  body  of  Christian 
tradition  before  the  earliest  date  of  any  of  the 
writings  that  we  possess.  After  a  time  there  was 
some  attempt  to  commit  these  traditions  to  writing, 
as  St.  lyuke  seems  to  intimate  when  he  says: 
* '  Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to  set 
forth  in  order  a  declaration  of  those  things  which 
are  most  surely  believed  among  us,  even  as  they 
delivered  them  unto  us,  which  from  the  beginning 
were  eyewitnesses  and  ministers  of  the  word,  it 
seemed  good  to  me  also,  having  had  perfect  un- 
derstanding of  all  things  from  the  very  first,  to 
write,"  etc.  These  words  must  refer  to  attempts 
to  reduce  to  permanent  records  the  oral  histories 
already  in  circulation,  but  of  these  we  have  no 
remains  to-day.  St.  Luke's  Gospel  is  thus  ex- 
plained by  himself. 

The  second  Gospel  was  written  by  Mark,  prob- 
ably to  record  the  substance  of  St.  Peter's  teach- 
ing with  respect  to  the  life  of  our  Lord.  St. 
Matthew  wrote  for  the  Jewish  Christians  espe- 
cially, as  indicated  by  many  internal  characteris- 
tics of  the  book,  and  it  has  been  supposed  that 
our   present  first   Gospel   is  a  translation  of   the 


THE   BIBLE   OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH      33 

Aramaic  or  Hebrew,  which  Matthew  may  have 
employed  in  the  original  work.  The  writings  of 
earliest  date  are  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians, 
probably  about  A.  D.  52.  Just  as  Isaiah  was 
moved  to  prophesy  in  the  old  time,  or  as  Ha- 
bakkuk  and  Malachi  had  ^'burdens''  that  they 
must  declare,  so  Paul  was  forced  to  write  to  the 
Christians  at  Thessalonica  concerning  errors  of 
faith  and  practice  that  were  assailing  the  welfare 
of  the  church.  His  ' '  burdens  ' '  were  many,  and 
letter  after  letter  was  added,  as  church  after 
church  needed  his  help.  As  time  went  on,  other 
emergencies  called  for  different  treatment  ;  gen- 
eral epistles  for  wide  circulation  were  needed.  A 
large  development  of  Christian  doctrine  arose  as 
difficulties  became  manifest,  or  a  partial  instruc- 
tion at  one  time  opened  the  way  for  further  teach- 
ing at  another.  A  new  life  was  constantly  un- 
folding, and  a  new  world  of  thought  was  coming 
into  being.  Thus  the  New  Testament  gradually 
grew  into  its  present  volume,  the  product  of  life, 
though  also  the  result  of  Divine  purpose  and  sug- 
gestion ;  much  of  it  the  unfolding  of  truth  long 
enshrined  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  much  of  it 
an  addition  to  the  religious  thought  of  the  world, 
as  it  was  called  forth  by  the  new  life  that  was 
making  itself  felt  more  and  more  as  a  regener- 
ating force. 

Before   the   close  of  the  first   century  all   the 


34  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

writings  now  composing  the  New  Testament  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  Christian  church.  Notwith- 
standing the  long  controversies  concerning  the 
Gospel  of  John  and  the  differences  of  opinion 
about  some  of  the  epistles,  we  believe  that  it  may 
be  reaffirmed  with  more  confidence  than  ever,  that 
these  writings  all  fall  within  the  apostolic  time. 
There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that  such  is  the  case. 
But,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Old  Testament,  other 
writings  also  came  into  existence,  and  in  some 
instances  they  were  received  for  a  time  as  of 
authority.  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  for  ex- 
ample, is  found  bound  up  in  the  same  volume 
with  the  New  Testament  in  one  of  the  two  oldest 
manuscripts  in  our  possession,  a  full  description 
of  which  will  be  given  in  a  later  chapter.  The 
first  epistle  of  Clement  was  read  for  a  time  in 
some  churches,  and  is  found  in  the  Alexandrine 
manuscript,  the  Codex  A  in  the  British  Museum. 
An  epistle  of  Barnabas  also  found  credence  for  a 
time,  but  later  was  rejected,  and  the  internal  evi- 
dence seemed  conclusive  against  its  genuineness. 
It  was  natural  that  this  wavering  line  of  inspired 
authority  should  be  variable  for  a  time  until  the 
churches  could  prove  the  new  writings  and  bring 
them  to  the  test  of  life  and  to  the  scrutiny  of 
learning.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  sacred 
books,  written  at  different  times  and  places,  were 
never  brought  together  in  one  volume,  as  we  have 


THE   BIBLE   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH      35 

them,  until  a  later  day.  The  decision  as  to  the 
close  of  the  canon  could  not  be  reached  while  the 
documents  were  still  appearing,  nor  for  a  consid- 
erable time  thereafter ;  and  in  fact  it  was  not  until 
the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  that  it  became 
generally  evident  that  the  need  of  the  church  was 
wholly  satisfied  in  this  respect.  During  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  no  book  had  been  produced 
that  was  deemed  worthy  to  stand  with  the  New 
Testament  as  we  now  have  it,  and  the  list  was 
definitely  considered  as  closed. 

But  before  we  pass  from  the  consideration  of 
the  growth  of  the  Bible,  it  will  be  well  to  note  a 
little  more  particularly  the  human  forces  that 
were  at  work  to  bring  about  this  determination 
of  what  writings  were  of  real  apostolic  origin  or 
authority.  It  is  important  not  to  be  deceived 
upon  such  a  subject  and  to  know  whether  the 
tests  applied  were  adequate,  and  whether  the 
judgment  of  the  church  was  well  founded.  How 
did  God  guide  the  mind  of  his  people  and  shape 
through  them  the  new  Scriptures  of  their  faith  ? 
The  church  to-day  has  a  far  greater  ground  for 
confidence  in  its  body  of  sacred  writings  than  if 
the  Bible  had  professed  to  come  down,  one  com- 
pleted volume,  from  flaming  skies,  or  to  have  been 
discovered,  like  the  book  of  iMormon,  in  some 
secret  hiding  place  on  earth.  In  fact,  almost 
every  circumstance  that  could  be  brought  to  the 


36  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

aid  of  the  church  in  determining  this  great  matter 
was  present.  Hostility  from  without  was  active 
in  leaving  no  point  of  possible  attack  unassailed. 
Early  disagreements  within  set  parties  against 
each  other,  with  eyes  alert  for  the  detection  of  any 
imposture  or  wrong  though  honest  action.  It  has 
been  asserted  that  it  was  a  credulous  age  and  un- 
critical to  the  last  degree.  The  assertion  is  wide 
of  the  mark.  There  were  men  of  great  brain  and 
quick  mind,  and  the  public  was  appreciative  of 
good  quality  in  literary  work.  In  Rome,  the  Au- 
gustan age  was  at  its  height  when  Christ  was 
born,  and  the  names  of  Cicero,  Horace,  Ovid, 
Virgil,  Livy,  and  many  others  of  their  peers  were 
borne  to  the  farthest  bounds  of  the  Roman  do- 
minion in  the  subsequent  years,  while  Rome  itself 
became  one  great  academy.  The  pinnacle  of 
Greek  culture  had  long  ago  been  reached,  but  at 
no  time  was  the  knowledge  of  Greek  literature 
and  art  more  widely  diffused ;  and  even  in  the 
land  of  the  Jews  theaters  were  erected  for  the  pro- 
duction of  the  plays  of  the  Greek  poets,  one  of  them 
finding  place  in  Jerusalem,  to  the  great  scandal  of 
the  people.  Alexandria  was  an  important  literary 
center,  especially  famous  for  critical  studies,  and 
destined  to  grow  more  prominent  still  as  the  ear- 
liest centuries  of  our  era  turned  the  life  of  that 
center  of  learning  toward  Christianity  and  the 
discussion  of  its  truths.     Among  the  Jews  them- 


THE   BIBLE   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  CHURCH      37 

selves,  a  large  body  of  men  trained  in  the  Law  had 
become  notorious  for  their  minute,  hair-splitting, 
capricious  criticism  of  their  sacred  writings,  while 
conspicuous  rabbis  revealed  a  great  mental  ability  ; 
and  these  Jewish  scholars  were  so  wholly  domi- 
nated by  love  for  their  own  Scriptures,  and  were 
so  filled  with  hatred  against  the  new  sect  of  Chris- 
tians, that  their  hostility  would  naturally  subject 
the  new  doctrines  and  the  writings  containing 
them  to  the  most  searching  criticism.  And  the 
Christians  themselves  who  came  out  from  Judaism 
must  have  been  met  at  the  outset  of  their  new 
life  with  difficulties  such  as  would  call  for  argu- 
ments like  those  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
which  show  how  loth  the  Jewish  mind  was  to 
believe  until  convinced.  If  we  regard  the  efforts 
within  the  church  to  bring  their  increasing 
Scriptures  into  a  definite  canon  that  could  be 
relied  upon,  we  find  in  a  document  discovered  by 
Muratori,  in  A.  D.  1738,  and  called  after  him  the 
Muratori  Fragment,  a  list  which  recognizes  the 
Gospels,  the  Acts,  thirteen  epistles  of  Paul,  two 
of  John,  that  of  Jude,  and  the  Revelation,  to 
which  it  adds  an  Apocalypse  of  Peter,  saying 
however,  that  "some  of  our  body  will  not  have 
the  latter  read  in  the  church."  This  was  in  A.  D. 
170.  Even  earlier,  a  heretical  teacher  at  Rome 
in  A.  D.  140,  Marcion,  made  a  list  of  Scriptures  to 
suit  his  own  heretical  views,  and  included  in  it 

D 


38  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

ten  of  St.  Paul's  epistles  and  a  part  of  St.  L^uke's 
Gospel.  But  this  mutilated  list  excited  the  indig- 
nant remonstrance  of  the  church,  and  her  great 
writers  condemned  the  list.  At  least  a  score  of 
documents  were  at  that  time  claimed  as  of  apos- 
tolic authority.  "It  is  probable,"  says  Davidson, 
*'  that  the  earliest  collection  of  the  sacred  books  was 
this  of  Marcion  ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that  even 
in  the  Second  Epistle  of  Peter  (3  :  i6)  there  is 
a  reference  to  'all  the  epistles  of  Paul'  and  to 
'other  Scriptures,'  which  may  refer  to  a  readily 
accessible  collection  already  in  the  hands  of  the 
churches."  However  this  may  be,  it  is  clear  that 
the  growth  of  the  canon  was  watched  carefully 
from  this  earliest  time,  and  that  the  additions 
made  in  Asia  Minor,  in  Syria,  in  Egypt,  in 
Northern  Africa,  and  in  Rome,  had  a  certain 
amount  of  local  jealousy  to  contend  with,  and 
found  their  settled  place  only  upon  their  incon- 
testable claims.  About  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century,  the  Gospels  and  the  apostolic  writings  are 
referred  to  under  the  one  name.  Novum  Testa- 
mentum^  or  New  Testament,  a  title  which  became 
general  toward  the  middle  of  that  century.  At 
this  time  the  work  had  proceeded  so  far  as  to 
include  all  the  books  in  our  New  Testament, 
except  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  the  Apoca- 
lypse, the  second  Epistle  of  Peter,  that  of  Jude, 
and  the  second  and  third  of  John.     These  were 


THE   BIBI,E  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH      39 

known,  quoted,  and  doubtless  regarded  as  au- 
thentic and  canonical  by  some  in  all  countries 
where  they  were  circulated  ;  but  they  had  not  yet 
come  to  the  undoubted  authority  of  the  rest.  But 
the  collection  thus  far  made  up  was  appealed  to 
everywhere  as  sacred,  inspired,  and  the  standard 
of  Christian  faith.  To  this  list  the  Hebrews  and 
the  Apocalypse  were  fully  received  very  soon 
after  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  and  about 
the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  the  remaining 
writings  had  gained  full  acceptance. 

Thus  by  long  and  careful  trial,  by  the  test  of 
patient  and  learned  examination,  by  the  proof  of 
their  divine  power  in  molding  the  lives  of  men, 
and  by  survival  after  numberless  enmities  had 
done  their  worst  to  destroy  them,  these  later 
writings  became  the  new  sacred  literature  of  the 
church,  and  without  substantial  change  have  been 
handed  down  to  the  present  age.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment remains,  with  all  its  hoary  prestige,  the 
divine  record  of  God's  dealings  with  men  before 
he  expressed  his  Word  in  flesh  and  gave  Jesus  to 
be  the  Light  of  the  World.  And  taking  up  the 
spirit  of  those  ancient  histories  and  prophecies  and 
songs,  the  New  Testament  adds  its  fourfold  story 
of  the  life  of  Jesus  among  men,  and  shows  how 
from  that  life  flows  forth  the  stream  of  redemption, 
that  "whosoever  believeth  in  him  might  not 
perish  but  have  everlasting  life." 


Ill 

THE  HEBREW  MANUSCRIPTS 

IT  is  clear  that  the  process  which  we  have  been 
describing  must  have  entailed  the  multiplica- 
tion of  copies  of  the  books  of  both  Testaments. 
The  last  New  Testament  autograph  was  written 
at  least  thirteen  centuries  and  a  half  before  print- 
ing was  invented.  Every  document  of  the  Jews, 
every  page  of  the  Christian  Scriptures,  must  be 
written  with  great  pains  by  the  human  hand.  The 
workmen  were  fallible,  and  if  Paul  could  write  of 
the  inspired  apostles,  ' '  we  are  men  of  like  passions 
with  yourselves,"  how  much  more  must  we  re- 
member that  the  thousands  of  hands  by  which 
the  very  human  work  of  transcribing  was  done 
were  human  hands,  and  that  to  have  "such  treas- 
ure in  earthen  vessels  "  makes  only  the  more  won- 
derful the  fact  that  our  Scriptures  have  come  down 
to  us  in  such  safety  and  with  such  integrity  as  is 
indicated  by  the  testimony  of  the  great  scholars 
whose  lives  have  been  given  to  the  study  of  the 
sacred  text.  Regarding  the  writings  of  the  Bible 
in  their  human  aspect  in  the  same  critical  way  in 
which  the  classical  works  of  Greece  and  Rome  are 
treated,  a  difference  of  text  is  found  in  different 
40 


THK   HKBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  4 1 

manuscripts.  The  variations  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment for  very  good  reasons,  as  will  be  seen  later, 
are  far  fewer  than  those  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  in  either  case  it  would  have  needed  a  miracle 
to  preserve  the  mere  text  from  any  error.  It  is  of 
great  importance,  therefore,  that  all  of  the  old 
manuscripts  of  the  Scriptures  should  be  brought 
together,  studied,  compared,  and  out  of  them  all 
such  a  true  text  be  gathered  as  may  be  considered 
in  all  essentials  and  in  almost  every  particular  the 
correct  original  text.  This  is  not  only  possible, 
but  it  has  been  done.  We  have  at  least  two  great 
editions  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  original 
Greek  to-day,  which  do  not  indeed  preclude  the 
necessity  of  further  study,  but  which  give  us 
very  little  to  be  hoped  for  in  the  matter  of  accuracy 
beyond  what  these  editions  present.  And  for  the 
Old  Testament  the  condition  of  the  Hebrew  may 
be  said  to  be  approximately  determined. 

The  mere  materials  of  which  the  ancient  docu- 
ments are  made  should  be  considered,  if  our  further 
treatment  of  them  is  to  be  wholly  understood. 
"  Especially  the  parchments  "  describes  very  well 
nearly  all  that  are  in  our  possession.  But  other 
materials  had  been  used,  and  even  at  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era  the  manuscripts  were  not  written 
alone  on  skins.  The  age  for  stone  and  clay  had 
long  passed  ;  and  yet  doubtless  some  of  the  records 
now  found  recorded  on  parchment  or  papyrus  were 


42  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

originally  written  on  clay  and  stone,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  to  suppose  that  the  age  of  writing  was 
late,  and  that  a  mere  oral  transmission  of  the 
earliest  beliefs  prevailed  until  a  late  time.  Many 
of  the  accounts  now  found  in  Genesis  and  Bxodus 
have  their  parallels  in  clay  and  stone  records,  and 
when  we  read  of  the  command  to  Moses  to  make 
stone  tablets  for  the  ten  commandments,  it  is  quite 
in  accord  with  a  common  method  of  writing  formal 
documents  in  that  day.  Whole  libraries  have 
been  discovered  made  of  clay  tablets,  some  of  them 
recordinof  transactions  in  real  estate  and  other 
matters  of  business  as  early  as  two  thousand  two 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  or  two  hundred  years 
before  Abram  came  out  of  Chaldea.  The  Baby- 
lonian and  Egyptian  monuments,  the  Minsean 
and  Sabaean  inscriptions  in  Southern  Arabia,  the 
tablets  found  at  Tel  el-Amarna  in  Egypt,  and  the 
excavations  at  Tel  el-Hesy,  or  the  ancient  Lachish, 
in  Palestine,  show  that  writing  was  common  at  an 
extremely  early  date.  A  whole  town  in  Southern 
Palestine  was  called  Booktown,  doubtless  on  ac- 
count of  the  deposit  there  of  records  in  large  num- 
bers similar  to  the  tablets  of  Tel  el-Amarna.  The 
Moabite  stone  elsewhere  referred  to,  and  the 
Rosetta  stone,  are  instances  of  writing  on  stone. 
Papyrus  was  in  use  even  contemporaneously  with 
clay  and  stone,  and  gradually  superseded  them  as 
a  far  more  convenient  though  more  perishable  ma- 


P3    O 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  43 

terial.  It  was  a  product  made  from  the  reeds  that 
grew  in  great  abundance  in  the  Nile,  and  nearly 
all  marshy  spots.  Professor  Georg  Ebers,  in  his 
Egyptian  story,  "The  Emperor,"  has  told  how 
the  reed  was  prepared  in  large  factories  for  the 
purpose ;  but  we  need  note  only  the  result  obtained, 
an  exceedingly  light  and  smooth  fabric  very  much 
like  our  paper,  which  indeed  takes  its  name  from 
this  same  old  word,  papyrus.  After  a  long  time 
papyrus  became  scarce  and  dear.  Then  the  skins 
of  animals,  particularly  of  the  young  antelope, 
were  dressed  with  the  greatest  skill  until  a  vellum 
almost  as  thin  and  fine  as  paper  was  obtained. 
As  in  the  case  of  papyrus  this  was  cut  into  strips 
a  few  inches  long,  these  strips  were  pasted  together 
upon  their  side-edges,  making  one  long  strip  some- 
times many  feet  in  length.  The  ends  of  this  strip 
were  fastened  to  sticks  around  which  they  were 
rolled  (volume),  and  the  reader  held  one  stick  in 
each  hand,  rolling  the  vellum  up  as  he  read,  the 
writing  having  been  put  upon  each  piece  in  a 
column,  so  that  two  or  three  columns  might 
appear  to  the  eye  as  the  strip  was  unrolled  from 
one  hand  and  rolled  up  by  the  other.  Soon  this 
cumbersome  method  of  making  books  yielded  to 
the  book  form,  as  we  have  it,  and  all  of  the  New 
Testament  manuscripts  now  in  our  possession  are 
books.  At  a  much  later  time,  the  ninth  centun-, 
a  coarse  paper  made  of  cotton  rags  came  into  use. 


44  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

preceding  the  linen  paper  made  in  the  twelfth 
century. 

It  can  be  seen  that  fragile  papyrus,  or  skins, 
would  not  be  likely  to  survive  rude  or  constant 
handling,  and  doubtless  multitudes  of  the  old 
manuscripts  have  perished  from  such  natural 
causes.  But  vast  numbers  of  these  sacred  books 
have  perished  through  the  hostility  which  the 
Jew  and  the  Christian  were  called  upon  to  suffer 
on  account  of  their  religion.  Probably  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Manasseh  many  copies  of  the  law 
were  destroyed.  When  the  armies  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar swept  over  the  land,  and  the  people  were 
carried  into  captivity,  multitudes  of  these  books 
must  have  perished,  or  been  borne  away  to  the 
far  north.  In  the  days  of  Antiochus  Bpiphanes 
an  edict  called  for  the  destruction  of  all  the  sacred 
writings,  and  a  regular  search  was  made  once  a 
month  through  all  the  houses,  and  if  any  books 
were  found  they  were  ruthlessly  burned.  When 
Titus  captured  Jerusalem,  one  copy  of  the  Law, 
perhaps  the  official  copy  used  in  the  temple,  was 
carried  to  Rome  with  the  other  trophies,  but  it 
has  not  been  preserved,  and  doubtless  it  was  then 
kept  only  as  a  curious  specimen  while  others  were 
destroyed.  In  the  years  A.  D.  1 31-135,  Bar 
Cochbar's  great  rebellion  defied  for  a  time  the  im- 
perial power  of  Hadrian,  but  was  finally  quenched 
in  blood,  and  the  last  hope  of  the  Jewish  people 


THE  HEBREW  MANUSCRIPTS  45 

as  a  nation  perished ;  and  in  this  strife,  as  in  so 
many  others,  Jewish  scholars  and  their  books  were 
special  objects  of  hostility,  and  innumerable  docu- 
ments were  lost.     And  when  the  Christian  Script- 
ures had  come  into  existence  and  shared  with  the 
Old  Testament  the  reverence  of  the  church,  per- 
secution after  persecution  fell  upon  the  new  faith 
during  the  first  three  Christian  centuries.     In  the 
last  and   fiercest  persecution  of  all,   that   under 
Diocletian,    from   A.  D.  303   to   312,  it   was   pro- 
claimed upon  Easter  Day  that  all  religious  assem- 
blies should  be  dispersed,  all  Christian  churches 
demolished,  every  copy  of   their   Scriptures   de- 
livered up  and  burned,  and  the  Christians  who 
should  refuse  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  should  forfeit 
their  lives  and  their  estates.     The  decree  shows 
how  important  it  was  deemed  by  the  foes  of  the 
new  religion    to    destroy    the   writings    as    well 
as   the   persons  and   property  of   the  Christians. 
And  though  by  far  the  larger  number  refused  to 
give  up  their  books,  and  were  punished  with  more 
or  less  severity,  yet  there  were  many  who  dared 
not  disobey,  and  preferred  to  relinquish  the  books. 
All  who  did  so  were  at  once  stigmatized  as  tradi- 
tores,  or  giver s-up,  traitors^  their  infamy  making 
all  the  more  illustrious  the  fidelity  of  such  Chris- 
tians as  those  of  Abitina  in  Africa,  forty-nine  of 
whom  were  executed,  among  them  the  heroic  boy 
Hilarianus.      As   for    the    Old    Testament,  still 


46  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

another  cause  accounts  for  the  disappearance  of 
multitudes  of  copies,  for  they  were  often  destroyed 
by  their  possessors  for  the  purpose  of  keeping 
them  from  either  suffering  or  doing  harm.  It 
was  better  to  destroy  a  sacred  but  useless  roll 
altogether,  than  to  allow  it  to  come  into  hands 
that  would  pollute  it,  or  to  run  the  risk  of  the 
perpetuation  of  its  faults  in  copies  that  might  be 
made  from  it.  Very  slight  defects  were  enough 
to  vitiate  a  synagogue  roll.  Three  errors  of  a 
scribe  upon  a  single  sheet,  the  blurring  of  letters 
brought  about  by  the  reverent  kissing  of  the 
opening  and  closing  words  of  the  portion  to  be 
read,  any  mutilation  of  the  text  by  ordinary  wear, 
and  many  other  causes,  condemned  a  document. 
Generally  such  rolls  were  buried  in  a  place 
selected  for  the  purpose  near  the  synagogue  and 
called  the  Gheniza.  Indeed,  it  may  be  that  a 
wholesale  destruction  of  early  copies  of  the  Old 
Testament  took  place  upon  the  final  establish- 
ment of  an  authoritative  text,  all  copies  not  agree- 
ing with  it  being  put  out  of  existence,  as  Othnian 
destroyed  all  copies  of  the  Koran  that  diverged  in 
the  slightest  degree  from  the  standard  copy  made 
in  his  time.  It  is  these  causes  that  explain  the 
strange  fact  that  we  have  no  copies  of  the  Hebrew 
Old  Testament  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  tenth 
century  of  our  era.  Many  New  Testament  manu- 
scripts are  in  existence  from  a  time  earlier  than 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  47 

that ;  but  not  one  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  except 
the  copy  of  the  law  at  Nablous,  the  ancient 
Shechem,  which  has  been  believed  to  be  of  the 
third  century.  It  is  chiefly  due  to  the  possession 
of  Hebrew  copies  by  Gentiles,  that  the  manu- 
scripts of  the  Old  Testament  now  available  have 
come  into  our  hands. 

But  while  we  have  comparatively  few  of  these 
Old  Testament  scrolls,  and  all  of  a  late  date,  they 
have  in  general  a  very  uniform  text.  As  we 
have  seen,  this  uniformity  does  not  indicate  their 
close  connection  with  one  original  or  the  correct 
transmission  of  the  earliest  text.  On  the  con- 
trary, great  and  many  vicissitudes  intervened,  as 
a  rapid  sketch  of  the  literary  history  of  the  people 
will  show. 

The  original  L<aw  delivered  on  Sinai  was  written 
on  stones,  and  we  know  from  the  Bible  itself  that 
these  were  broken  and  replaced  by  new  tablets, 
which  were  placed  in  the  ark  (Dent.  10 : 1-5).  But 
even  before  Sinai  was  reached  Moses  had  been 
commanded  to  write  an  account  of  the  battle  with 
Amalek  :  "  Write  this  for  a  memorial  in  a  book, 
and  rehearse  it  in  the  ears  of  Joshua"  (Exod. 
17  :  14).  Before  he  died,  "  Moses  wrote  this  law," 
doubtless  some  important  part  of  the  Pentateuch, 
although  it  is  hard  to  determine  now  just  how 
much  of  it,  and  gave  it  to  the  priests,  the  sons  of 
l/cvi,  to  be  read  at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  at  the 


48  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

end  of  every  seven  years  (Deut.  31  :  10),  and  to  be 
laid  during  the  intervals  by  the  side  of  the  ark  as 
a  testimony  to  Israel.  Additions  were  made  by 
Joshua  to  this  sacred  library  (Josh.  24  :  26),  and 
at  a  later  period  "Samuel  told  the  people  the 
manner  of  the  kingdom,  and  wrote  it  in  the  book, 
and  laid  it  up  before  the  lyord."  David's  Psalms 
and  others  may  then  have  found  place.  So  far  the 
story  is  of  the  first  production  of  these  writings, 
and  of  the  extreme  reverence  with  which  they 
were  regarded  and  which  must  have  protected 
them  from  any  violation.  But  then  comes  an  in- 
timation of  what  may  have  been  the  first  copies. 
It  became  the  custom  for  every  new  king  upon  his 
accession  to  make  a  copy  of  the  Law  to  be  kept 
with  him  (Deut.  17  :  18)  for  his  personal  use.  Thus 
the  number  of  copies  grew,  and  probably  the  more 
rapidly  as  the  earlier  prophets  arose,  and  schools 
of  the  prophets  were  founded,  which  must  have 
required  the  use  of  the  sacred  books.  All  this 
copying  would  be  likely  to  have  the  opposite  ten- 
dency from  an  accurate  transmission  of  the  text. 
It  may  be  safe  to  say  that  no  copy  could  have 
been  absolutely  free  from  error.  Moreover,  we 
find  a  growing  disrespect  for  the  Law  and  the 
religion  of  Israel,  and  the  nation  lapsed  into 
idolatry.  The  sacred  rolls  would  be  less  securely 
guarded  and  less  often  read.  Possibly  the  very 
obscurity  in  which  they  would  lie  during  such  a 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  49 

period  was  a  safeguard  to  them.  But  then  we 
read  of  a  great  religious  revival  when  Hezekiah 
came  to  the  throne.  The  whole  nation  was 
aroused.  The  long-closed  temple  was  opened 
and  the  service  again  instituted,  and  errors  cor- 
rected according  to  what  was  written  (2  Chron. 
30  :  18),  and  the  priests  and  Levites  once  more 
gave  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  law  of  the 
Lord  (2  Ciiron.  31  :  4),  resulting  in  further 
transcription  of  the  writings,  as  we  know  from 
the  book  of  Proverbs  (25  :  i).  But  another 
revulsion  came :  Hezekiah's  son  and  grandson 
knew  not  Jehovah,  and  holy  living  lapsed,  and 
once  more  the  Law  was  lost  to  view,  until  Josiah 
came  as  a  boy  to  the  throne.  When  he  had  been 
ten  years  in  power,  and  had  tried  to  re-establish 
the  true  religion,  suddenly  word  was  brought  to 
him  that  Hilkiah  the  priest  had  found  the  book 
of  the  law  of  the  Lord  given  by  the  hand  of 
Moses  (2  Chron.  34  :  14).  This  was  about  the 
year  B.  c.  621.  In  solemn  convocation  this  old 
document  thus  newly  found  was  read  to  the 
people,  and  the  land  was  prospered.  But  again  a 
relapse  into  sin  came  ;  as  a  consequence,  the 
Egyptians  first  and  then  the  Babylonians  swept 
over  the  country  ;  the  temple  was  despoiled,  and 
Nebuchadnezzar  carried  its  treasures  to  Babylon. 
Did  the  sacred  rolls  go  with  them  ?  If  they  did  not, 
probably  they  perished  in  the  flames   at  a  later 


50  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

day,  when  the  house  of  the  Lord  was  burned  in 
the  reign  of  Zedekiah  ^  (2  Chron.  36  :  19).  How- 
ever tliis  may  be,  it  is  probable  that  authoritative 
copies  were  now  in  the  possession  of  the  people, 
some  of  which  may  have  remained  in  the  land, 
while  others,  if  only  a  few,  were  preserved  by 
some  of  the  more  pious  and  favored  of  the 
captives. 

We  have  traced  this  history  hastily  to  show  that 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  time  were  not  favorable 
either  to  the  exact  reproduction  of  the  original  text 
in  copies,  or  to  the  preservation  of  the  volumes 
themselves.  But  the  deportation  of  the  people 
and  the  captivity  in  Babylon,  like  so  many 
apparent  misfortunes,  was  a  blessing  in  disguise. 
A  truer  spirituality  was  fostered  and  a  larger  op- 
portunity given  for  the  study  of  such  ancient 
copies  of  their  law  as  were  remaining.  It  is  not 
ours  to  trace  the  story  of  the  exile,  but  only  to 
note  that  Babylon  became  the  home  of  all  the 
literary  cultivation  of  the  Jews  at  this  time,  as  at 
a  later  period  Alexandria  was  the  center  of  Jewish 
learning,  while  later  still,  after  the  fourth  century 
of  the  Christian  era,  the  Jewish  center  of  learning 
returned  again  to  Babylon.  It  is  not  necessary  for 
us  to  suppose,  as  the  Jewish  legend  does,  that  the 
Scriptures  burned  in  the  temple  at  the  close  of 

1  See  the  fourth  book  of  Ezra  for  the  legend  concerning  this 
conjecture. 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  5I 

Zedekiah's  reign  were  miraculously  restored  by 
Ezra  in  Babylon,  for  a  more  natural  course  may 
have  brought  about  the  same  end,  if  this  learned 
and  pious  and  zealous  man  deemed  it  his  first  duty 
to  search  out  the  copies  among  the  people,  and  by 
diligent  comparison  write  a  new  copy  better  than 
any  or  all  of  them.  However  this  may  be,  we  find 
him  on  the  return  of  the  exiles  with  such  a  copy 
in  his  hands,  and  it  becomes  at  once  the  standard 
Scripture  of  the  restored  nation.  From  this 
moment  new  and  abundant  means  for  the  multi- 
plication of  the  records  arose.  A  guild  of  scribes 
came  into  existence,  the  beginning  of  that  com- 
pact body  of  learned  men  which  we  meet  so  often 
in  the  Gospels.  Previously  the  Scriptures  had 
been  chiefly  the  concern  of  the  priests,  and  Ezra 
himself  was  both  a  priest  and  a  scribe.  But  now 
arose  a  new  demand  for  the  scientific  study  of  the 
Law,  and  the  exposition  of  it  became  an  indepen- 
dent business.  A  new  profession  gradually  arose, 
and  non-priestly  Israelites  more  and  more  entered 
into  it. 

This  class  of  scholars  was  also  favored  by  the 
rise  of  synagogues,  in  which  the  teaching  of  the 
Eaw  became  the  central  and  principal  object.  In 
the  temple  the  main  thing  was  sacrificial  worship. 
In  the  synagogue  the  main  thing  was  instruction, 
and  no  one  can  read  the  New  Testament  without 
seeing  that  the  natural  growth  of  the  Christian 


53  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

cliurcli  was  not  from  an  origin  in  the  temple  but 
rather  from  the  synagogues,  so  that  the  new 
worship  became  not  so  much  ritual  as  a  worship 
having  preaching  for  its  central  point.  Philo 
called  the  synagogues  "  houses  of  instruction,"  in 
which  "  the  native  philosophy  was  studied  and 
every  kind  of  virtue  taught."  According  to  tra- 
dition, which  has  but  few  probabilities  in  its 
favor,  ^  the  solemn  covenant,  signed  as  recorded  in 
the  tenth  chapter  of  Nehemiah,  was  the  beginning 
of  the  Great  Synagogue,  a  great  central  body  of 
men  chosen  of  God  for  the  study  of  the  Law. 
Ezra  was  its  president,  and  Daniel,  Haggai, 
Malachi,  and  others  of  the  biblical  prophets,  were 
from  time  to  time  members  of  it.  From  this  grew 
the  guild  of  the  scribes  and  from  the  earliest 
synagogues  the  establishment  of  synagogues 
throughout  all  the  world.  There  can  be  no  doubt, 
whatever  we  may  think  of  the  story  of  the  Great 
Synagogue,  that  during  the  period  from  Ezra  to 
the  beginning  of  our  era,  there  was  an  intense 
literary  activity,  and  that  the  Old  Testament 
gradually  came  to  its  final  shape  ;  the  text  re- 
ceived virtually  its  present  form  in  all  the  earliest 
written  books,  and  the  later  writings  were  added. 
And  while  the  great  multiplication  of  copies  must 
have  tended  to  the  production  also  of  clerical 
errors,  yet   the   critical   attention  of  the   scribes 

*  Biihl  on  the  *'  Canon  and  Text  of  the  Old  Testament,"  p.  34. 


THK   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  53 

must  also  have  tended  to  a  comparison  of  manu- 
scripts, as  in  later  days,  and  the  eradication  of 
false  readings.  We  know  that  when  our  Lord 
appeared  the  Old  Testament  was  a  completed  and 
wonderfully  revered  and  guarded  book. 

After  the  time  of  Jesus,  a  new  dispersion  of  the 
Jews,  destined  to  last  even  to  our  own  time,  w^as 
brought  about  by  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in 
A.  D.  70.  The  temple  was  once  more  gone,  and 
instead  of  one  great  center  for  their  religious  life 
many  centers  arose,  and  some  of  these  became  of 
great  importance.  Tiberias,  more  than  all,  be- 
came the  home  of  Jewish  learning,  and  from  this 
point  Jewish  scholars  went  out  in  great  numbers. 
The  whole  reverence  of  the  nation  gathered 
around  the  Scriptures,  which  were  now  their  hope 
for  the  future  as  well  as  their  record  of  a  glorious 
past.  The  scribes  became  of  more  importance 
than  ever.  The  priests  had  become  somewhat 
looser  in  their  convictions  than  formerly,  and 
many  of  them  yielded  to  the  contagion  for  world- 
culture  as  the  functions  of  their  sacred  offices 
became  more  and  more  impossible.  They  de- 
voted themselves  to  the  Greek  literature,  so  widely 
affected  at  the  time,  but  the  scribes  would  have 
none  of  it.  Rabbi  Ishmael  was  once  asked  when 
the  Greek  wisdom  might  be  studied,  and  he 
answered  :  "At  some  time  which  is  neither  day 
nor  night,  for  the  book  of  the  Law  says  :  '  Day 


54  'I'HE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

and  night  tliou  shalt  meditate  therein. ' "  In  addi- 
tion to  the  reproduction  of  manuscripts  and  their 
constant  study,  new  works  were  written,  making 
no  pretention  to  sacredness,  but  having  the  charac- 
ter of  commentaries,  comprising  the  traditional 
oral  explanations  of  the  I^aw,  and  later  interpre- 
tations in  writing,  the  former  called  the  Mishna 
and  the  latter  Gemara,  and  these  when  brought 
together  were  called  the  Talmud,  or  the  Teach- 
ing. While  this  additional  literature  was  grow- 
ing, the  natural  tendency  of  such  study  was  to 
increase  yet  further  the  reverence  with  which  the 
sacred  books  themselves  were  held,  and  from 
various  sources  we  are  sure  that  they  suffered  no 
material  corruption.  Though  no  document  of 
this  early  age  has  come  down  to  us,  a  comparison 
of  translations  and  of  quotations  shows  that  the 
text  was  substantially  that  which  we  have  now. 
Moreover,  while  all  this  was  doing,  a  great  many 
discussions  had  arisen  and  decisions  been  reached 
as  to  disputed  points,  matters  of  reading  as  well 
as  interpretation,  and  these  had  come  to  such 
volume  as  to  make  their  secure  transmission  by 
oral  means  alone  almost  impossible.  These  there- 
fore were  also  reduced  to  writing,  and  a  select 
party  of  the  scribes  was  devoted  to  this  work. 
As  the  Mishna  and  Gemara  together  were  called 
the  Talmud,  or  the  Teaching,  this  new  collec- 
tion of  writings  was  called  the  Massorah,  or  the 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  55 

Traditions,  and  the  scribes  under  whom  it  was 
formed  were  called  Massoretes.  This  body  of 
learned  men  devoted  itself  to  the  most  minute 
study  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  application  of  the 
older  laws  and  the  addition  of  many  others  ;  but 
most  of  all,  the  influence  of  the  Massoretes  was 
felt  in  the  introduction  of  written  vowels,  by 
which  the  pronunciation  and  the  meaning  of  the 
original  Hebrew  was  fixed.  For  up  to  this  time 
the  original  Hebrew  as  a  written  language  was  a 
language  of  consonants  only  ;  and  coming  to  this 
point  in  our  description  we  must  pause  a  moment 
to  consider  the  text  itself,  as  it  would  appear  to 
the  eye  of  a  reader. 

The  very  earliest  Scriptures  were  written  in  a 
form  that  differs  considerably  from  the  appearance 
of  a  page  in  our  Hebrew  Bible  of  to-day.  The 
ancient  Phoenician  character  was  used,  differing 
in  many  respects  from  the  later  square  character, 
as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  examples  : 

Phoenician  :         Z    "P"  ^  Y    ^    <\    ^    "^  ^ 
Later  Hebrew  -     "*    tl     f     *t      il^lDK 

Of  the  first  specimen  there  are  but  few  examples 
left ;  but  in  recent  years  some  of  these  have  been 
discovered.  In  1868,  at  Dibon,  in  Moab,  east  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  a  large  stone  was  discovered  bearing 
an  inscription  of  Mesha,  the  king  of  Moab  men- 
tioned in  2   Kings  3  :  4.     Undoubtedly  this   in- 


56  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

scriptioii  is  as  early  as  the  ninth  century  before 
Christ,  and  it  is  the  oldest  specimen  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew,  or  more  properly,  of  the  ancestral  Phoe- 
nician stock.  Unfortunately  the  stone  was  broken 
into  many  fragments  by  the  iVrabs,  when  they 
realized  that  it  was  of  great  value,  as  was  shown 
by  the  large  oflfers  made  for  it  by  a  French  savant 
then  living  in  Jerusalem.  Either  from  a  feeling 
of  superstition,  or  thinking  that  more  money 
might  be  gotten  by  selling  the  stone  piecemeal, 
they  built  a  fire  under  it,  and  when  it  was  very  hot 
dashed  cold  water  on  it,  thus  shattering  it.  The 
smaller  pieces  were  appropriated  as  amulets,  and 
the  larger  guarded  as  of  peculiar  sanctity.  By 
perseverance  and  a  large  outlay  of  money,  how- 
ever, most  of  the  pieces  were  finally  obtained,  the 
larger  number  by  France,  while  a  few  pieces  found 
their  way  to  England  ;  but  with  a  regard  for  the 
true  interests  of  scientific  knowledge  that  was 
most  praiseworthy,  the  British  Museum  yielded  its 
fragments  to  the  Louvre,  and  the  restored  stone  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  that  national  treasure- 
house.  Another  important  discovery  was  made 
in  Jerusalem  in  1880  upon  the  wall  of  the  conduit 
which  opens  into  the  pool  of  Siloam.  A  boy  was 
wading  in  the  pool  and  made  his  way  with  a 
lighted  candle  into  the  dark  mouth  of  the  tunnel, 
when  he  observed  what  appeared  to  be  characters 
engraved  on  the  rock.     He  at  once  reported  his 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  57 

discovery  as  of  possible  value,  and  indeed  it  was 
found  to  be  of  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  and  to  throw 
much  light  upon  the  construction  of  the  tunnel 
and  the  condition  of  the  city  at  the  time.  This 
specimen  is  next  in  antiquity  to  the  Moabite  stone, 
and  shows  also  the  old  but  later  Phoenician  form 
of  the  letters  out  of  which  the  Hebrew  grew.  A 
few  other  examples  of  such  writing  exist  on  seals 
and  coins,  and  a  modified  form  of  it  is  seen  in  the 
Samaritan  Pentateuch. 

The  age  succeeding  Ezra  witnessed  a  change 
of  the  written  character  into  what  is  called  the 
square  letter,  as  seen  in  the  second  example  in  our 
illustration.  The  change  was  doubtless  very 
gradual,  but  was  assigned  by  the  later  Jews  to 
Ezra  himself,  as  it  was  their  custom  to  put  ever>'- 
thing  down  to  Ezra  that  could  not  well  be  attrib- 
ted  to  Moses.  But  we  know  that  the  change  was 
gradual,  for  we  find  it  still  in  progress  as  late  as 
the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  and  somewhat 
earlier  upon  monuments  which  show  an  Egyptian- 
Aramaic  character,  as  well  as  upon  coins  and  a 
fragment  of  papyrus  in  the  British  Museum.^ 
Moreover,  the  Samaritans  did  not  have  their 
Pentateuch  written  in  the  old  character  until  at 
least  a  half  century  after  Ezra.  But  however 
gradually  the  change  was  efiected,  it  may  have 

*  Driver:  "  Notes  on  the  Hebrew  Text  of  the  Books  of  Samuel," 
xvii.,  seq. 


58  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

begun  indeed  with  the  great  Ezra,  and  progressed 
until  it  was  completed  at  a  date  considerably 
before  our  era,  for  we  are  sure  that  the  written 
Hebrew,  with  which  Jesus  was  conversant  and 
which  was  familiar  to  the  men  of  his  time,  must 
have  had  the  characters  with  v/hich  we  are 
familiar.  He  refers  to  the  "jot  and  the  tittle," 
\h^yodth^  the  very  smallest  letter,  which,  however, 
in  the  ancient  form  was  one  of  the  largest,  as  our 
example  shows  ;  and  the  tittle,  the  little  crook 
found  in  many  letters,  such  as  the  "  L,"  "^,"  in 
the  later  writing,  which  afforded  no  trace  of  such 
a  minute  terminal  in  the  older  form. 

Then  came  the  Massoretes,  as  we  have  said. 
Let  us  take  an  example  of  Hebrew  in  the  square 
character  and  translate  it  into  English,  and  we 
shall  understand  what  the  Massoretes  did  in  the 
addition  of  the  vowels.  The  Hebrew  is  read  from 
right  to  left,  but  the  example  in  English  is  printed 
in  the  usual  way,  and  we  take  a  passage  that  with 
the  consonants  alone  might  be  read  in  two  ways 
— I  Kings  17  :  6  : 

NDTHRVNS  BRGHT  THM  BRD  NDFLSH  NTHMRNNG 

a  eae  ou  oi  eaa  ei  eoi 

Without  the  vowels  written  beneath  this  would 
hardly  be  intelligible,  especially  as  the  conjunc- 
tions and  prepositions  are  joined  closely  with  the 
following  words.  But  with  the  vowels  we  read 
easily  :    "  And  the  ravens  brought  to  him  bread 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  59 

and  flesh  in  the  morning."  But  now  if  we  re- 
member that  the  letter  "  V  "  in  English  is  cognate 
with  '^  B,"  and  if  we  supply  other  possible  vowels, 
we  can  read  : 

NDTHRVNS  BRGHT  THM  BRD  NDFLSH  NTHMRNNG 

a  eaaia  oa  oiaia  ei  eoi 

"  And  the  Arabians  brous^ht  to  him  a  bird  and 
flesh  in  the  morning."  In  fact,  in  the  original 
Hebrew,  the  consonants  for  the  word  ravens  and 
those  for  the  word  Arabians  are  exactly  the  same, 
not  needing  even  the  slight  change  of  pronuncia- 
tion indicated  in  English  by  the  difference  be- 
tween "  B  "  and  "V."  In  the  Hebrew,  however, 
the  word  bread  could  not  be  mistaken  for  the 
word  bird^  as  we  have  supposed  in  the  English ; 
but  the  Hebrew  consonants  for  bread  might  be 
supplied  with  vowels  to  make  it  read  war^  and  so, 
if  the  context  allowed  it,  our  words  might  be 
translated :  "  And  the  Arabians  brought  to  him 
war  in  the  morning."  In  most  instances  there 
could  be  no  mistake  made  from  the  absence  of 
the  written  vowels,  for  the  sense  of  the  whole 
passage  would  determine  the  right  word  ;  but  in 
many  cases  there  might  be  a  difference,  and  in 
fact,  the  passage  that  we  have  taken  as  an  ex- 
ample is  preferred  by  some  as  reading:  *'The 
Arabians  brought  to  him  flesh,"  though  it  seems 
to  us  as  if  the  older  and  traditional  reading 
is    preferable,    particularly   as   it    has 


6o  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF    THE   FAITH 

always  been  so  understood  by  the  Jews  them- 
selves. Another  passage  of  similar  nature  is 
actually  translated  in  the  Bpistle  to  the  Hebrews 
(ii  :  2i),  "Jacob  worshipped,  leaning  upon  the 
top  of  his  staff,"  following  the  Septuagint,  which 
so  understood  the  word  in  the  original  (Gen.  47  ; 
31),  "And  Israel  bowed  himself  upon  the  bed's 
head ' '  ;  the  vowels  were  wanting,  and  the  Jews 
supplied  them  to  mean  bed^  while  the  Septuagint 
supplied  them  for  staff.  It  is  true  that  the  Jew 
would  not  find  the  great  difficulty  in  reading  his 
text  without  the  vowel  points  that  we  should  find 
in  English,  were  all  the  vowels  abolished  ;  but  we 
can  have  some  idea  of  the  aid  given  by  the  intro- 
duction of  these  signs,  and  of  the  tendency  they 
would  have  to  fix  the  meaning  in  doubtful  cases. 
But  this  was  not  the  only  service  to  the  text 
rendered  by  the  Massoretes.  They  supplied  also 
minute  signs,  by  which  the  emphasis  upon  certain 
words  was  expressed,  and  they  introduced  punc- 
tuation. Thus  the  sentences  were  not  only  easily 
determined,  but  even  the  tones  in  which  the 
reader  should  chant  the  passage.  They  noted 
also  the  number  of  times  which  certain  words 
occurred,  and  marked  it  in  footnotes,  and  often  by 
great  care  set  passages  over  against  each  other  by 
means  of  signs  of  reference,  so  that  each  passage 
received  help  from  the  other.  They  counted  the 
verses  in  each  book,  the  words,  the  letters,  and 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  6l 

noted  the  middle  verse,  word,  and  letter,  and  in 
many  ways  that  seem  to  us  entirely  superfluous, 
made  themselves  acquainted  with  the  text.  We 
cannot  understand  of  what  possible  value  it  could 
be  to  know  that  the  first  letter  of  the  alphabet 
occurs  (in  the  Hebrew)  forty-two  thousand  three 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  times  ;  but  they  knew 
it,  and  much  else  of  the  same  sort.  But  we  can 
see  that  this  close  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures 
was  an  index  of  their  unbounded  reverence  for 
them  and  a  safeguard  against  any  alterations. 

The  rules  for  the  copyist  were  exacting  in  the 
extreme.  The  Law  must  be  transcribed  from 
manuscripts  of  approved  character  only.  The 
material  of  the  rolls  must  be  the  skins  of  clean 
animals  only,  prepared  for  the  express  purpose  by 
a  Jew,  and  fastened  with  strings  of  the  same  ma- 
terial. Every  skin  must  have  a  certain  number 
of  columns  of  a  fixed  length  and  breadth,  com- 
prising a  given  number  of  lines  and  words.  An 
entire  roll  must  be  ruled  with  regular  lines,  and 
if  more  than  three  words  are  written  without  a 
line,  the  whole  manuscript  must  be  rejected. 
Black  ink  alone  can  be  used,  and  it  must  be  made 
according  to  a  particular  recipe.  Soot,  charcoal, 
and  honey  are  mixed  into  a  paste,  which  is  al- 
lowed to  harden  ;  this  is  then  dissolved  in  water, 
with  an  infusion  of  galls  before  using.  The 
writer  must  never  trust  to  memory.     He  is  to  look 

F 


62  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

at  the  original  before  writing  each  word,  and 
every  word  must  be  orally  pronounced.  Between 
all  books  three  lines  must  be  left.  The  fifth  book 
of  Moses  must  end  exactly  with  the  line.  The 
transcriber  must  always  be  in  full  Jewish  costume 
when  at  work.  As  often  as  the  name  of  God  ap- 
pears he  must  purify  himself  and  wash  the  whole 
body,  and  his  pen  must  not  be  dipped  into  the  ink 
immediately  before  writing  the  name,  but  it  must 
be  washed,  and  then  the  word  preceding  the  name 
must  be  written  with  sufficient  ink  in  the  pen  so 
that  at  least  the  letter  immediately  before  the 
sacred  name  shall  be  written  with  the  same  ink 
as  the  name  itself.  While  writing  the  name,  his 
devotion  must  be  such  that  even  if  a  king  ad- 
dresses him  he  must  take  no  notice  till  the  task  is 
done.  Whether  a  mistake  in  copying  the  name 
of  the  Deity  made  a  roll  unfit  for  use  in  the 
synagogue  was  a  matter  of  dispute  among  the 
Jews.  The  lack  or  redundance  of  a  single  letter, 
the  writing  of  prose  as  verse,  or  of  verse  as  prose, 
or  two  letters  touching  each  other,  spoiled  a  manu- 
script. When  a  copy  was  completed,  it  was  ex- 
amined and  corrected  within  thirty  days,  in  order 
to  determine  whether  it  was  to  be  approved  or 
rejected.  Such  rules  as  these  enumerated  in  the 
tract  Sopherim^  a  late  addition  to  the  Babylonian 
Talmud,  show  the  views  with  which  the  task 
of  the  scribe  was  then  regarded.     And  although 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  63 

it  is  not  likely  that  so  many  regulations  hedged 
the  way  against  errors  at  an  earlier  period,  yet 
probably  the  exactions  were  many,  even  at  the 
beginning  of  our  era. 

Notwithstanding  this  extreme  reverence  for 
their  Bibles,  it  was  thought  necessary  in  some 
cases  to  suggest  a  correction  of  the  text.  There 
are  some  words,  for  example,  which  it  was  not 
thought  quite  proper  to  read  aloud  in  public  ;  or 
some  word  was  believed  to  be  incorrect ;  or 
a  case  of  wrong  spelling  occurs  ;  or  there  are 
words  whose  last  letter  belongs  to  the  following 
word ;  or  two  words  have  been  run  together  as 
one.  But  whatever  these  mistakes  were,  they 
must  not  be  changed  in  the  text  itself.  The 
reader  had  to  pronounce  a  different  word  from 
what  was  written,  or  otherwise  make  the  correc- 
tion in  speech  to  which  he  was  prompted  by  certain 
notes  placed  in  the  margin.  These  notes  were 
called  Keri,  meaning  "read,"  while  the  word 
actually  written  in  the  text  was  distinguished  by 
the  name  Kethib,  meaning  "written."  Thus  in 
practice  if  the  copyists  found  a  wrong  word  in 
their  original  they  wrote  it,  that  is,  the  consonants 
only,  with  an  asterisk  over  them  ;  then  they  put 
under  these  consonants  the  vowels  of  what  they 
believed  to  be  the  right  word,  and  wrote  the 
consonants  of  the  right  word  in  the  margin.  This 
made  the  word  in  the  text  absurd,  and  the  atten- 


64  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

tioii  was  diverted  to  the  margin,  where  the  correct 
consonants  for  the  vowels  in  the  text  were  found. 
If  a  word  was  to  be  wholly  omitted  in  reading  it 
was  left  luipointed,  and  the  note  written  but  not 
read  was  put  in  the  margin  ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  a  word  was  to  be  supplied  its  vowels 
were  inserted  in  the  text  and  its  letters  placed  in 
the  margin  with  the  words  read  but  not  written. 

In  such  work  as  this  the  Massoretes  labored  for 
centuries,  until  at  least  eight  hundred  years  after 
Christ.  Their  toil  was  invaluable  for  the  student 
of  the  Bible,  and  to  them  we  owe  very  largely 
both  the  preservation  and  the  exposition  of  the 
original  text.  In  their  labors  we  find  the  explana- 
tion of  the  strange  fact  that  in  all  existing  Hebrew 
manuscripts  the  text  is  almost  the  same,  word  for 
word,  so  that  it  may  be  said  that  all  copies  of  the 
Old  Testament  show  a  greater  unanimity  than 
the  copies  of  any  other  ancient  book,  not  ex- 
cepting even  the  New  Testament. 

We  have  seen  that  the  toil  of  modern  scholars 
has  given  us  a  Greek  New  Testament  upon  whose 
text  we  may  safely  rely.  While  it  cannot  be  said 
that  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament  is  as  correct 
and  secure,  notwithstanding  the  agreement  of  ex- 
tant manuscripts,  yet  we  know  that  out  of  the  old 
Hebrew  times  the  Scripture  has  come  to  us  with 
all  substantial  correctness.  The  Old  Testament 
originals  so  far  away  in  antiquity,  the  early  vicis- 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  65 

situdes  of  their  transmission  through  copies,  the 
very  late  date  of  all  extant  manuscripts,  the  de- 
fective testimony  of  secondary  witnesses  like  the 
translations,  the  as  yet  unsettled  questions  concern- 
ing the  Septuagint  are  sufficient  explanations  of 
the  more  incomplete  results  of  Old  Testament 
criticism.  But  such  conclusions  have  been  at- 
tained as  to  leave  us  no  reasonable  doubt  as  to  the 
revealed  truth  of  the  old  dispensation,  and  the  Old 
Testament  unites  with  the  later  Covenant  to  point 
us  infallibly  to  the  way  of  eternal  life.  Special 
passages  may  need  the  alteration  of  a  word  or  a 
phrase.  Perhaps  Jacob  leaned  upon  the  head  of 
his  bed,  perhaps  upon  the  head  of  his  staff; 
but  the  great  facts  and  the  great  truths  of 
Jacob's  life  are  ours  beyond  alteration.  The 
Bible  is  secure.  It  is  a  word  tried  by  the  fires  of 
the  most  exacting  critical  scholarship  after  having 
been  put  to  the  test  of  actual  living.  It  was  found 
by  the  ancient  Israel  to  be  from  God  ;  it  was 
proved  by  the  later  church  to  have  God's  Spirit 
in  it,  as  it  shaped  and  sustained  the  spiritual  life 
of  his  people.  It  is  to-day  and  ever  will  be  the 
fountain  of  truth  to  satisfy  the  thirst  of  the  soul. 


IV. 

THE  HEBREW  MANUSCRIPTS  {Continued) 

'^PHB  Hebrew  manuscripts  are  divided  into  two 
-■-  classes,  according  to  their  form,  the  syna- 
gogue rolls  and  the  private  copies.  The  former, 
as  the  name  indicates,  are  all  in  the  form  of  rolls, 
made  of  parchment,  and  written  with  the  care 
that  we  have  indicated  as  prescribed  in  the  tract 
Sopherhn.  The  text  in  these  rolls  has  no  vowels 
or  accents,  and  the  divisions  of  the  text  are  want- 
ing. These  manuscripts  were  made  for  one  special 
purpose,  and  were  never  sold.  Those  found  in  the 
possession  of  Christians  are  supposed  to  be  such 
as  were  rejected  by  the  synagogues  on  account  of 
some  slight  fault  which  vitiated  them  for  public 
use.  The  private  manuscripts  are  in  the  form  of 
books,  written  on  either  vellum  or  paper,  and  are 
of  various  sizes.  The  text  is  in  black  ink  with 
vowel  points  added,  often  by  a  second  writer  and 
in  ink  of  a  different  shade.  The  upper  and  lower 
margins  of  these  books  contain  Massoretic  notes, 
and  sometimes  additional  comments.  Sections, 
verses,  and  other  distinguishing  traits  are  found. 
Sometimes  a  Targum,  or  interpretation  in  Chaldee, 
is  written  in  alternate  verses  or  parallel  columns, 

66 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  67 

and  sometimes  this  translation  occupies  the  mar- 
gins of  the  pages. 

Another  classification  of  Hebrew  manuscripts  is 
made  according  to  the  character  of  the  letters. 
The  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  which  is  to  all  intents 
a  Hebrew  document,  though  not  recognized  by 
the  Jews  and  written  in  the  archaic  form  of  the 
Hebrew  character,  stands  alone.  But  many  other 
manuscripts  can  be  recognized  at  once  as  similar, 
and  belonging  to  certain  localities.  The  Spanish 
documents  have  the  writing  upright,  regular, 
square,  simple,  and  elegant.  The  German  text  is 
a  little  inclined,  sharp-pointed,  crooked,  intricate, 
and  comparatively  inelegant.  The  Italian  manu- 
scripts occupy  a  sort  of  middle  ground  between 
the  Spanish  and  the  German  in  these  respects. 
The  Spanish  and  German  differ  from  each  other 
in  the  arrangement  of  the  books,  and  several  other 
divergencies  occur.  The  Oriental  copies  are  gen- 
erally similar  to  the  Spanish  and  are  assigned  to 
the  same  class,  while  the  French  are  generally 
placed  with  the  Italian. 

The  total  immber  of  Hebrew  manuscripts  is 
very  large  ;  over  two  thousand  are  well  known. 
But  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  great  part 
of  these  documents  contain  only  a  portion  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  book  of  Esther  has  the 
largest  number  of  copies ;  the  books  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  the  smallest  number.     Owino:  to  the 


68  THE  PARCHMKNTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

wide  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  these  documents  come 
to  us  from  all  lauds.  If  we  could  present  a  large 
number  of  illustrations  of  them,  they  would  be 
seen  to  be  of  the  most  varied  character,  from  the 
worn  and  tattered  rolls  to  the  almost  fresh  and 
very  ornate  volumes.  But  a  brief  description  of 
a  few  examples  must  suffice,  as  our  space  must  be 
^iven  chiefly  to  the  more  important  documents  of 
the  New  Testament  and  their  wonderful  history. 

The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  has  been  said  to  be 
in  all  essentials  a  Hebrew  manuscript,  although 
it  is  written  in  the  ancient  Phoenician  Hebrew, 
and  differs  in  many  important  respects  from  the 
documents  recognized  as  authoritative  by  the 
Jews.  An  approximate  specimen  of  its  text  has 
been  given  in  our  illustration  (page  55).  It  will 
be  noticed  that  the  letters  are  very  rudely  shaped, 
and  to  the  unskilled  eye  appear  to  be  almost  a  dis- 
tinct character,  having  no  affinity  with  the  beau- 
tiful square  letters  of  the  other  example.  This 
copy  of  the  Pentateuch  is  the  only  Bible  that  the 
Samaritans  recognize,  and  it  is  of  importance  in 
the  history  of  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament, 
though  it  holds  but  an  inferior  place  in  textual 
value. 

Omri,  the  sixth  king  of  Israel,  founded  the  city 
of  Samaria,  about  b.  c.  900.  His  residence  at 
Tirzah  had  been  burned,  its  position  had  been 
proved  too  easily  assailable  in  war,  and  with  a 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  69 

sagacity  which  has  been  declared  comparable  with 
that  of  Coustantine  the  Great  in  founding  Con- 
stantinople, Omri  selected  the  summit  of  the  hill 
Shomeron  for  the  capital  of  his  kingdom.  It  was 
a  place  of  great  natural  strength,  and  by  its  de- 
feats and  desolations,  no  less  than  by  its  successful 
resistance  to  its  foes,  the  city  has  often  proved  its 
military  and  political  importance. 

In  course  of  time,  the  ten  tribes  of  Israel  inhab- 
iting the  district  of  which  Omri's  capital  was  the 
center,  as  well  as  the  more  northern  section  of 
Palestine,  were  carried  away  into  a  captivity  in 
Assyria.  In  the  second  book  of  Kings,  17  :  24, 
we  read  that  other  nations  were  placed  in  the 
cities  of  Samaria  instead  of  the  children  of  Israel, — 
"  men  from  Babylon,  and  from  Cuthah,  and  from 
Ava,  and  from  Hamath,  and  from  Sepharvaim.  .  . 
And  so  it  was,  at  the  beginning  of  their  dwelling 
there,  that  they  feared  not  the  Lord ;  therefore 
the  Lord  sent  lions  among  them,  which  slew  some 
of  them. ' '  The  colonists  complained  to  the  king 
who  had  deported  them  thither,  and  he  com- 
manded that  one  of  the  priests  who  had  been 
carried  away  from  Samaria  should  be  sent  back 
to  teach  the  colonists  "the  manner  of  the  God 
of  the  land."  The  result  was  a  strange  mixture 
of  religions,  well  expressed  by  the  words  of  the 
Bible  :  "  So  they  feared  the  Lord  and  served  their 
own  gods. ' '     These  then,  were  the  New  Samari- 


70  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

tans,  as  we  may  call  them,  men  not  originally  of 
the  Jewish  race,  but  from  the  far  East.  Doubt- 
less not  all  the  New  Samaritans  were  of  unmixed 
foreign  blood,  for  some  of  the  original  inhabitants 
may  have  remained,  intermarried  with  the 
strangers,  and  thus  perpetuated  a  strain  of  the 
Hebrew  lineage  in  the  later  time.  But  essentially 
even  these  were  foreigners,  and  the  Samaritans 
were  always  considered  as  aliens  by  the  Jews. 

When  the  tribe  of  Judah  returned  from  captivity 
and  sought  to  rebuild  Jerusalem,  these  Samaritans 
desired  to  take  part  in  the  work  and  share  in  the 
privileges  of  the  national  worship.  It  is  an  evi- 
dence that  they  had  by  this  time  become  more  at 
home  in  the  Jewish  faith  than  they  were  at  first. 
But  the  acute  and  strict  Ezra  refused  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  them.  They  were  a  corrupt 
people,  and  would  only  bring  contamination  into 
the  Jewish  State.  This  repulse  emphasized  the 
separation,  and  the  Samaritans  threw  off  every 
cloak  of  friendship,  and  the  long  and  implacable 
hostility  between  the  two  peoples  began.  But  the 
stern  rejection  by  Ezra  may  have  been  beneficial 
in  a  religious  view,  for  as  the  national  hostility 
grew  the  Samaritans  seem  to  have  rejected  idolatry 
more  and  more,  and  to  have  sought  an  approach 
to  purity  in  the  religion  of  Jehovah.  About  B.  c. 
419,  a  romance  in  real  life  led  to  an  important 
crisis  in  the  religion  of  Samaria.     A  young  Jew, 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  7 1 

named  Manasseh,  a  brother  of  the  Jewish  high 
priest,  more  faithful  to  his  wife  than  many  of  his 
fellow-Jews  were  to  theirs,  refused  to  put  her  away 
because  she  was  the  daughter  of  a  foreigner,  San- 
ballat,  when  the  elders  in  Jerusalem  became 
uneasy  about  his  sharing  the  high  priest's  office 
while  entangled  with  such  an  alliance.  Had  not 
Ezra  required  the  repudiation  of  all  "  strange 
wives  "  ?  Manasseh  refused  to  comply,  and  fled 
to  Samaria.^  The  Persian  king  was  petitioned  to 
allow  the  erection  of  a  temple  on  Mount  Gerizim, 
Manasseh  became  the  high  priest  there,  and  from 
him,  says  the  tradition,  the  Samaritans  received  a 
copy  of  the  Law.  This  Pentateuch  was  really 
only  a  copy  of  the  commonly  received  Hebrew 
text  altered  for  the  new  exigencies  "  by  impudent 
assertion  and  falsification,"  as  Edersheim  says. 
This  book  thus  became  the  sole  authority  in  the 
Samaritan  religion.  No  other  books  of  the  Hebrew 
canon  were  ever  admitted  in  Samaria.  Of  course 
the  Samaritans'  version  of  their  own  history  and 
the  origin  of  their  sacred  books  differs  considerably 
from  that  which  we  have  given  ;  but  it  is  colored 
by  the  necessities  of  their  case  and  is  readily 
proved  unreliable. 

The  temple  upon  Mount  Gerizim  fell  into  ruins 
long  ago,  and  the  religion  of  the  Samaritans  has 
almost  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the  earth.    In 

^  Josephus,  "  Antiq.,"  xi.,  8. 


72  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

1874,  only  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  persons  re- 
mained in  the  little  village  of  Nablous,  upon  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Shecheni,  to  carry  on  the 
ancient  rites,  so  far  as  these  are  possible  under 
such  altered  conditions.  Their  only  synagogue 
is  a  little  unadorned  building  in  the  most  thickly 
settled  portion  of  the  town,  and  here  in  a  veiled 
recess  are  kept  three  ancient  copies  of  the  lyaw,  one 
of  which  is  the  famous  scroll  for  which  is  claimed 
the  highest  antiquity  and  supreme  authority. 
This  celebrated  scroll  is  written  on  the  hair-side 
of  fine  ramskins  about  twenty-five  by  fifteen  inches 
in  size.  The  skins  are  much  worn  and  stained, 
and  holes  appear  in  many  places.  The  text  is 
written  in  gold,  which  still  preserves  its  lustre, 
and  the  manuscript  must  have  been  very  magnifi- 
cent when  new.  It  is  kept  in  a  cylindrical  silvered 
case,  opening  on  two  sets  of  hinges.  The  outside 
of  the  case  is  richly  embossed,  and  is  pictured  with 
the  tabernacle  of  the  wilderness,  the  ark  of  the 
covenant,  altars,  candlesticks,  and  other  sacred 
implements.  The  case  is  declared  to  be  Venetian, 
of  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  century.  The  sacred 
roll  is  exhibited  to  the  congregation  with  appro- 
priate ceremonies  only  once  a  year,  on  the  Day 
of  Atonement,  and  the  people  reverently  kiss 
that  part  which  bears  the  Aaronic  blessings — to 
the  detriment  of  the  blessings.  When  restored  to 
its  case,  the  whole  is  wrapped  in  a  gorgeous  crim- 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  73 

son  satin  cover,  embroidered  in  gold.  The  Sa- 
maritans themselves  claim  that  this  precious  relic 
was  written  by  Abisha,  a  great-grandson  of  Aaron, 
and  bears  the  inscription  :  "  I,  Abisha,  son  of 
Phinehas,  son  of  Bleazar,  son  of  Aaron,  the  priest, 
upon  whom  be  the  grace  of  Jehovah  !  to  his  honor 
have  I  written  this  holy  law  at  the  entrance  of  the 
tabernacle  of  testimony  on  the  Mount  Gerizim, 
Beth-El,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  taking  of 
the  land  of  Canaan  and  all  its  boundaries  around 
it  by  the  children  of  Israel.  I  praise  Jehovah  !  '* 
The  completeness  of  the  Samaritan  claims  in  this 
inscription  is  enough  to  arouse  suspicion,  for  it 
not  only  declares  the  antiquity  of  the  document, 
but  also  of  the  place  of  worship  on  Mount  Gerizim. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  mere  existence  of  the  in- 
scription is  more  than  doubtful,  as  the  assertion 
of  the  Samaritans  finds  no  confirmation  from 
European  research,  except  upon  the  dubious  evi- 
dence afforded  by  a  single  traveler.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  believe  in  such  antiquity  for  the 
document,  and  it  can  hardly  be  assigned  a  date 
so  early  as  the  third  century  of  our  era. 

The  existence  of  this  ancient  copy  of  the  law 
was  for  a  long  time  unknown.  Scholars  had  been 
perplexed  by  references  in  the  works  of  Origen, 
Jerome,  and  others,  to  the  Hebrew  according  to 
the  Samaritans,  as  differing  somewhat  from  the 
Hebrew  according  to  the  Jews.     The  oblivion  of 

G 


74  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

fifteen  centuries  covered  the  Samaritan  text,  and 
it  began  to  be  considered  a  fiction,  and  various 
hypotheses  were  assumed  to  explain  the  allusions 
of  the  Fathers.  But  at  last,  in  1616,  Pietro  della 
Valle,  a  man  learned  in  the  Oriental  languages, 
bought  a  copy  of  the  Pentateuch  from  the  Samari- 
tans of  Damascus.  This  copy  was  purchased  in 
the  name  of  the  ambassador  of  France  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  he  gave  it,  in  1623,  to  the  lyibrary 
of  the  Oratory,  in  Paris.  European  interest  was 
at  once  excited,  and  the  manuscript  was  subjected 
to  the  most  earnest  scrutiny.  Several  other  copies 
were  soon  discovered,  and  in  1630,  Archbishop 
Ussher  possessed  six,  and  in  1790,  a  printed  edi- 
tion was  prepared.  There  are  now  sixteen  manu- 
scripts of  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  in  the  libra- 
ries of  Europe. 

But  now  what  is  the  value  of  this  ancient  roll 
in  determining  the  text  of  our  Bible  ?  At  first  it 
was  supposed  that  it  was  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance, on  account  of  its  age  and  the  belief  that  it 
represented  an  original  of  far  greater  antiquity 
than  any  from  which  later  copies  were  made.  But 
gradually  this  belief  was  modified,  and  at  last 
Gesenius  thoroughly  studied  it  and  exposed  so 
many  weaknesses  that  it  has  never  been  considered 
an  authority  since  that  time.  He  showed  its  errors 
to  consist  chiefly  of  three  sorts  :  first,  grammatical 
blunders ;    second,  changes   to   explain   passages 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  75 

that  were  obscure ;  and  third,  bold  corruptions  for 
the  sake  of  supporting  the  peculiar  Samaritan 
views  and  usages.  For  these  purposes  history  was 
deliberately  falsified  and  teachings  were  twisted 
from  their  manifest  meaning.  And  yet  all  these 
corruptions  did  not  make  the  manuscript  useless. 
It  was  found  that  its  text  was  substantially  that 
of  the  Massoretes,  and  just  because  the  Samaritan 
text  had  been  isolated  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years,  and  kept  by  intense  hatred  from  any  possi- 
ble contact  with  the  Jewish  text,  its  testimony  to 
the  substantial  integrity  of  the  latter  is  exceedingly 
strong,  indicating  a  common  origin  for  both. 

Again,  it  appears  that  certain  of  the  translations 
of  the  Old  Testament  which  are  yet  to  be  consid- 
ered by  us,  the  Septuagint,  the  Syriac,  the  Vulgate, 
of  which  we  have  manuscripts  of  far  earlier  date 
than  of  any  Hebrew  text,  agree  with  certain  read- 
ings of  the  Samaritan  manuscripts,  and  thus  seem 
to  indicate  a  partial  corruption  of  the  received  He- 
brew text.  In  other  ways,  also,  the  Samaritan 
Pentateuch  is  useful  to  the  textual  critic,  but  we 
may  not  enter  further  into  the  details.  But  before 
we  turn  to  other  documents,  we  may  note  that  this 
ancient  scroll  is  the  most  interesting  relic  of  the 
hostility  which  was  so  evident  in  our  Saviour's  time 
between  the  Jew  and  the  Samaritan,  And  it  is  a 
proof  of  the  power  that  has  swept  away  all  the  old 
barriers  between  men,  and  borne  onward  the  great 


76  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

work  of  the  world's  regeneration  beyond  all  such 
petty  restraints  as  might  be  erected  by  either  Jew 
or  Gentile.  The  time  has  come  when  the  true 
worship  of  the  Father  is  aptly  symbolized  by  the 
freedom  and  the  vast  multiplication  of  the  Script- 
ures themselves.  Now  we  depend  not  upon  any 
copy  of  the  law  kept  either  in  Jerusalem  or 
Gerizim  ;  but  with  the  printed  Bible  circulated 
all  over  the  world,  and  with  Hebrew  and  Samaritan 
manuscripts  testifying  to  its  truth,  the  hour  has 
fully  come,  indeed,  when  men  shall  worship  the 
Father  everywhere  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

Of  Hebrew  manuscripts,  strictly  so  called,  sev- 
eral may  be  mentioned  as  of  great  value,  and 
some  of  them  have  interesting  histories.  One 
especially,  that  is  no  longer  in  existence,  was  vQry 
famous,  the  subject  of  some  adventure  and  much 
romance.  It  was  believed  by  some  to  have  been 
in  the  possession  of  Ezra  himself,  while  others 
have  thought  it  to  be  one  of  the  three  famous 
copies  found  in  the  court  of  the  temple  after  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  and  sent  to  Rome 
among  the  spoils  of  war.  But  both  of  these 
surmises  are  unworthy  of  credit.  We  know  that 
the  roll  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Jews  in 
Toledo,  Spain  ;  and  that  in  A.  d.  1367,  when  the 
city  was  taken  by  Edward,  the  Black  Prince,  it 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  conquerors.  But  they 
preferred   its   value  in  money,  and  allowed  the 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  'J'] 

Jews  to  redeem  it  at  a  large  price,  and  it  returned 
to  the  care  of  the  synagogue  until  it  perished  in 
the  flames  when  the  synagogue  was  burned.  The 
document  was  of  such  sanctity  that  manuscripts 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  were  sent  to  be  tested 
by  its  text,  and  some  codices  are  in  our  possession 
which  are  certified  as  having  been  compared  at 
least  with  other  manuscripts  which  had  been 
verified  by  the  Codex  Ezras  itself.  It  is  a  matter 
of  great  regret  that  the  manuscript  is  no  longer  in 
existence. 

The  oldest  Hebrew  codex  extant  is  dated  916, 
a  manuscript  of  the  prophets,  brought  from  the 
Crimea  by  a  distinguished  Karaite  scholar,  A. 
Firkowitch.  It  is  in  the  Imperial  Library  of  St. 
Petersburg,  and  has  been  edited  in  fac  simile.  The 
oldest  manuscript  of  the  whole  Old  Testament  is 
dated  loio. 

The  Codex  Laudianus  in  the  Bodleian  li- 
brary at  Oxford,  begins  with  Genesis  27  :  31,  and 
is  an  important  document.  It  originally  formed 
only  one  volume,  but  now  it  is  in  two  parts,  folio, 
with  plain,  elegant  letters,  originally  written 
without  points.  It  is  of  the  eleventh  century,  and 
is  considered  of  high  authority.  It  agrees  to  a 
remarkable  extent  with  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch. 

The  Codex  Cesen^E  is  especially  valuable  as 
having  in  its  margins  some  readings  of  still  more 
ancient  documents.     The  codex  itself  is  placed 


78  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

toward  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century.  It  is  a 
vellum  folio  in  the  German  character,  and  contains 
the  Pentateuch,  the  Prophets,  Canticles,  Ruth, 
Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Esther.  It  is  in 
the  Malatesta  library  in  Bologna. 

The  Codex  Parisiensis,  No.  27,  in  the  Na- 
tional Library  in  Paris,  is  a  quarto  of  the  entire 
Old  Testament,  written  on  vellum  in  the  Italian 
character.  It  is  of  high  value,  and  dates  from  the 
twelfth  century. 

A  fragment,  containing  the  Law  from  Genesis 
43  :  14  to  Deuteronomy  15  :  12,  was  treasured  in 
the  library  of  De  Rossi.  The  leaves  appear  to  be 
of  different  ages,  some  of  them  perhaps  going 
back  as  far  as  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century. 
The  characters  are  rudely  formed  and  there  are  no 
traces  of  the  Massorah.  Another  very  interesting 
manuscript  was  brought  to  England  by  Dr.  Buch- 
anan, in  1806.  He  discovered  it  in  the  record- 
chest  of  a  synagogue  of  black  Jews,  in  the  interior 
of  Malayala  in  India.  The  scroll  measures  forty- 
eight  feet  in  length,  but  in  its  original  unimpaired 
form  it  must  have  been  at  least  ninety  feet  long. 
It  now  consists  of  thirty-seven  skins  twenty-two 
inches  long,  with  one  hundred  and  seventeen  col- 
umns of  clear  and  legible  writing.  Unfortunately, 
it  was  written  by  some  comparatively  careless 
scribe,  and  its  mistakes  are  so  numerous  as  to 
make  it  of  little  critical  value. 


THE   HEBREW   MANUSCRIPTS  79 

At  Odessa,  there  is  a  roll  brought  from  Derbend, 
in  Daghestan,  having  such  an  appearance  of  age 
that  its  subscription,  saying  that  it  was  corrected 
in  the  year  580,  was  for  some  time  credited,  though, 
as  we  have  said,  it  is  now  well  understood  that  the 
earliest  extant  Hebrew  manuscript  is  not  older  than 
the  year  916.  One  indication  of  a  date  at  least  as 
late  as  this  is  in  the  separation  of  the  words  in  this 
manuscript.  But  some  of  the  letters  have  a  very 
ancient  shape,  and  there  are  no  vowels,  accents, 
or  Massorah.  It  contains  the  five  books  of  Moses 
complete. 

A  unique  manuscript  is  described  by  Davidson. 
It  contains  the  Minor  Prophets,  and  Isaiah,  Jere- 
miah, and  Bzekiel.  Every  page  is  written  in  two 
columns,  between  which,  as  well  as  below  and  in 
the  outer  margins,  the  Massorah  is  found.  After 
each  verse  there  are  two  points,  and  the  vowels 
and  accents  are  very  different  from  those  usually 
known  and  are  written  above  the  letters,  the  first 
page,  however,  having  them  both  above  and 
below.  The  whole  codex  is  very  correctly  written, 
and  where  variations  occur  their  testimony  is  of 
importance. 

Codex  634  of  De  Rossi  is  on  parchment  with- 
out vowel  points.  The  manuscript  contains  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  Law.  It  is  in  a  very  dilapi- 
dated state,  and  like  a  similar  roll,  Codex  503  of  De 
Rossi,  was  taken  from  a  Gheniza  at  Lucca,  where 


8o  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

it  had  been  buried  to  save  it  from  falling  into  pro- 
fane hands. 

It  were  useless  to  describe  further  the  manu- 
scripts of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  Hebrew, 
except  to  note  that  they  vary  greatly  in  their  out- 
ward aspects,  at  which  one  might  wonder,  when 
the  extreme  conservatism  with  which  the  text  was 
so  long  regarded  is  remembered.  But  there 
seemed  to  be  no  law  regulating  the  size  of  the 
books,  the  amount  of  ornamentation  that  might 
be  used,  or  the  fancy  of  the  copyist  in  arranging 
the  marginal  notes.  The  special  rules  concerning 
the  copying  of  the  text  itself  did  not  always  ob- 
tain, and  we  have  documents  in  which  some 
liberty  was  taken  with  the  letters  themselves,  but 
these  are  mostly  from  mediaeval  times.  Highly 
ornamented  initial  letters  appear,  fantastic  bor- 
ders, and  in  some  instances  the  "  Keri  "  notes  are 
woven  together  to  fill  the  margin  with  forms  of 
birds  and  flowers  and  beasts,  and  even  of  fabulous 
dragons.  We  have  rolls  of  finest  parchment  and 
of  rough  leather.  Some  are  not  more  than  a  score 
of  feet  long,  while  some  are  seven  or  eight  times 
that  length.  They  vary  from  a  few  inches  to  two 
feet  in  width.  But  whatever  variations  of  this 
kind  may  appear,  the  agreement  of  all  in  the 
text  itself  is  remarkable,  as  we  have  already  indi- 
cated. 


V 

THE   GREEK  TRANSI.ATIONS 

IT  is  not  only  to  the  documents  in  the  original 
Hebrew  that  the  appeal  must  be  made  for  the 
determination  of  the  real  text.  It  will  be  under- 
stood readily  that  a  translation  into  any  otlier 
tongue  would  be  a  witness  to  the  text  from  which 
it  was  made,  and  that  the  value  of  this  testimony 
would  be  in  proportion  to  the  age,  fidelity,  com- 
pleteness, and  other  characteristics  of  the  transla- 
tion. For  example,  we  have  noted  that  the 
Hebrew  manuscripts  which  we  have  are  not  of 
eariier  date  than  the  tenth  century.  Suppose, 
then,  that  a  manuscript  written  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury were  found,  even  if  it  were  a  traiislation 
from  a  Hebrew  text,  it  would  be  nearer  the  origi- 
nal by  at  least  six  centuries,  and  if  the  matter  of 
time  were  the  only  thing  to  be  considered,  it 
would  be  far  more  valuable  than  the  Hebrew 
documents  themselves.  In  reality  there  are  sev- 
eral characteristics  upon  which  the  value  of  a 
manuscript  depends  more  important  than  mere 
antiquity  ;  but  if  we  find  that  the  translation,  of 
which  we  have  this  early  copy,  coincides  in  gen- 

8i 


82  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

eral  with  the  Hebrew  documents,  it  is  in  just  so 
far  a  confirmation  of  their  correctness.  Moreover, 
the  translation,  of  which  we  have  this  copy,  for 
example,  in  Codex  B  of  the  Vatican,  is  of  a  date 
which  we  know  exactly,  carrying  back  our  point 
of  view  to  the  third  century  before  Christ,  from 
which  we  see  an  original  yet  earlier  from  which 
the  translation  was  made.  Thus  our  copy  be- 
comes an  almost  unimpeachable  witness  to  a 
Hebrew  text  dating  certainly  more  than  three 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  Again,  if  in  certain 
cases  the  text  of  this  translation  in  our  copy  of 
the  fourth  century  varies  from  that  of  the  Hebrew 
manuscripts  in  our  possession,  a  verse  having  been 
omitted  or  added,  or  some  very  considerable  dif- 
ferences of  reading  appearing,  the  question  is  at 
once  raised  as  to  which  document  represents  the 
earlier  text  most  correctly.  This  question  starts 
a  long  investigation,  perhaps ;  but  it  has  the  result 
of  showing  that  even  before  the  third  century 
before  Christ  there  were  probably  differences  of 
reading  in  the  manuscripts  from  which  our  docu- 
ments were  made.  All  of  these  matters  are  of 
the  very  essence  of  textual  criticism,  and  the  im- 
portance of  translations,  and  even  of  much  more 
free  paraphrases  aiid  commentaries  becomes  evi- 
dent. 

The   SepTUAGInt    is    undoubtedly   the    most 
important  translation  of  the  Old  Testament.     It 


THK   GREEK   TRANSLATIONS  83 

has  already  been  referred  to  in  these  pages,  but 
must  now  be  more  minutely  described.     I  have 
shown  how,  by  their  varying  political  fortunes, 
the  Jews  had  been  scattered  to  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  through  the  conquests  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  of  Macedon,  the  Greek  language  had 
come   into   common   use  two  or  three  centuries 
before  Christ.      The  great  city  founded   by  the 
conqueror    in    Egypt,    and   called   after   himself, 
Alexandria,  rose  to  the  first  importance  as  a  politi- 
cal and  commercial  center.     The  conqueror  de- 
ported to  this  city  a  large  number  of  Jews,  and 
the  Ptolemies  encouraged  the  further  settlement 
of  Jews  in  their  capital,  so  that  Alexandria  be- 
came almost  another  "Jerusalem  in  Egypt."     It 
is  said  that  at  least  one-third  of  the  population 
was  composed  of  Hebrews.     It  has  been  shown 
how  these   colonists,  like    their   countrymen   in 
Palestine,  had  lost  the  knowledge  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew  language ;  but  of  course,  these  exiles  in 
the  midst  of  a  Greek  population  would  acquire 
the  Greek  language  more  easily  and  quickly  than 
the  Jews  in  Palestine.      These  colonists  needed 
their  sacred  books  in  the  language  which  they 
spoke,  and  both  for  the  service  of  the  synagogues 
and  for  private  uses,  the  demand  for  a  translation 
was  made.     Doubtless  the  Law,   or  Pentateuch, 
alone  was  first  translated,  and  for  the  beginning 
of  this  work  the  date  b.  c.  275  may  be  assumed  ; 


84  THE  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

but  after  the  I^aw  had  found  its  place  in  the  new 
tongue,  the  way  became  open  for  the  gradual  ex- 
tension of  the  work,  and  through  a  long  period 
the  rest  of  the  Old  Testament  was  added,  the 
work  ending  at  a  time  not  later  than  B.  c.  130. 

But  this  natural  occasion  is  not  the  only  expla- 
nation that  has  been  given  of  the  origin  of  the 
Septuagint,  and  we  have  other  and  conflicting 
accounts.  On  the  one  hand,  the  story  begins 
with  the  second  king  of  the  Ptolemaic  dynasty, 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  who  was  a  liberal  patron 
of  literature  and  the  arts.  He  desired,  it  is  said, 
to  know  the  real  differences  between  the  Jews  and 
the  Samaritans.  He  therefore  engaged  five  trans- 
lators to  prepare  a  copy  of  the  Bible  in  Greek. 
Of  the  five,  three  were  Samaritans,  one  was  a 
Jew,  and  one  a  learned  man  neither  Jew  nor  Sa- 
maritan. The  Samaritans  translated  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  the  rest  of  the  work  was  done  by  the 
others.  The  king  decided  that  the  faith  of  the 
Samaritans  was  supported  by  the  translation. 
This  is  evidently  the  Samaritan  side  of  the  story, 
and  is  doubtless  unreliable.  Another  account, 
which  may  have  more  reason  for  our  considera- 
tion, assigns  the  first  desire  for  a  translation  to 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  the  librarian  of  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus,  that  the  work  might  find  a  place  in 
the  great  library  of  Alexandria.  A  letter,  un- 
doubtedly spurious,  of  Aristeas,  gives  the  account 


THE  GREEK  TRANSLATIONS  85 

of  the  la  tier's  part  in  the  scheme,  showing-  how 
he  warned  the  king  of  the  difficulty  of  overcoming 
the  prejudices  of  the  Jews,  and  that  it  would  be 
necessary  to  do  something  to  gain  their  good  pleas- 
ure. The  king  therefore  liberated  nearly  two 
hundred  thousand  Jewish  slaves,  and  these  formed 
the  large  body  of  an  embassy,  of  which  Ptolemy's 
high  officers  were  the  leaders,  bearing  rich  gifts 
to  Jerusalem.  In  response  to  this  prayer,  seventy- 
two  elders  were  set  apart  for  the  work  and  were 
received  at  Alexandria  with  great  honors.  They 
were  divided  into  thirty-six  companies.  Bach 
pair  was  secluded  in  a  separate  cell,  on  the  island 
of  Pharos.  When  their  work  was  done,  it  was 
found  that  they  all  agreed  with  each  other  in 
eveiy  phrase  and  word !  A  third  version  of  the 
story  declares  that  the  task  was  accomplished  by 
the  seventy-two  trauslators  in  seventy-two  days, 
by  independent  toil  ;  but  the  miraculous  agree- 
ment is  wanting  and  the  final  result  was  gained 
by  conference  and  comparison.  Great  rewards 
were  bestowed  on  the  translators  by  the  king, 
''  for  he  loved  to  have  such  men  and  to  spend  his 
wealth  upon  them." 

These  stories  are  certainly  not  true,  at  least  in 
their  details.  The  Greek  of  the  translation  is  the 
Macedonian  Greek  which  prevailed  in  Alexandria, 
and  there  are  found  many  words  of  Egyptian 
origin,  which  would  not  be  the  case  if  the  work 
II 


86  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

had  been  done  by  learned  men  from  Jerusalem. 
The  Pentateuch  is  by  far  the  best  part  of  the 
translation,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  it  may 
have  been  translated  at  one  time  in  the  convent 
cells  on  the  seashore,  the  historic  fact  giving  rise 
to  the  legends.  The  Law  bears  evidence  of  one 
authorship.  Whether  the  books  of  Moses  were  all 
translated  from  one  excellent  Hebrew  manuscript 
or  not,  it  is  evident  that  the  authority  for  the  re- 
maining books  was  neither  so  good  nor  of  such  con- 
sistency. The  book  of  Proverbs  is  considered  to 
rank  next  to  the  Pentateuch  in  point  of  fidelity 
and  style.  The  book  of  Job  is  thought  to  have 
been  influenced  by  the  acquaintance  of  the  trans- 
lator with  the  Greek  poets.  Esther  and  the 
Psalms  and  the  Prophets  were  translated  during 
the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philometer,  b.  c.  180-145, 
but  no  definite  dates  can  be  assigned  in  any 
case.  Isaiah  has  many  omissions  and  inter- 
polations, and  the  book  of  Daniel  was  so  badly 
done  that  another  by  Theodotion  was  preferred 
by  the  Christian  church.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that 
the  whole  work  covered  a  long  period  in  its  accom- 
plishment, and  even  if  the  royal  favor  may  have 
smiled  upon  the  origin,  the  real  occasion  and 
course  of  the  production  must  be  assigned  to  the 
natural  need  of  the  Jewish  colonists.  As  it  pro- 
gressed, and  after  its  completion,  it  was  adopted 
by  those  for  whom  it  was  intended,  and  rapidly 


THE   GREEK   TRANSLATIONS  87 

won  its  way  to  almost  universal  acceptance,  so 
that  in  the  time  of  Christ  and  for  a  century  after- 
ward it  remained  the  chief  authority  among  the 
Dispersion  and  the  popular  book  of  the  Palestinian 
Jews,  and  was  only  discredited  at  last  by  them 
because  the  Christian  church  had  taken  possession 
of  it,  and  was  making  use  of  it  in  its  conflict  with 
the  Jewish  faith.  New  Jewish  translations  then 
came  into  favor,  as  those  of  Aquila  and  Theodo- 
tion.  For  controversial  purposes  the  Jews  then 
denied  the  agreement  of  the  Septuagint  with  the 
original  Hebrew,  but  this  was  not  until  the  second 
century  of  our  era. 

The  constant  and  wide  use  of  the  Septuagint 
naturally  called  a  vast  number  of  copies  into 
existence.  These  were  subject  to  the  inevitable 
mistakes  of  all  copies,  and  to-day  the  question  of 
the  correct  reading  is  one  of  the  most  important 
connected  with  the  textual  study  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Indeed,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Origen 
(a.  d.  230),  the  inaccuracies  and  the  marginal 
notes  had  become  so  numerous  and  troublesome 
that  a  revision  of  the  whole  work  was  greatly  de- 
sired. Origen  undertook  the  enormous  labor, 
which  was  not  destined  to  reach  completion  until 
the  expiration  of  twenty-eight  years.  He  com- 
pared the  Greek  text  then  generally  accepted 
with  the  Hebrew  and  with  other  Greek  transla- 
tions, collecting  for  the  purpose  manuscripts  from 


88  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

every  known  source.  The  work  was  begun  in 
Csesarea  and  finished  in  Tyre,  and  it  was  "  epoch- 
making"  in  the  study  of  the  word.  He  prepared 
a  Bible  called  the  Hexapla,  in  which  were  written 
in  six  adjacent  columns  six  texts,  in  the  following 
order:  (i)  The  Hebrew  text  in  Hebrew  charac- 
ters ;  (2)  the  Hebrew  text  in  Greek  characters  ; 
(3)  the  Greek  translation  of  Aquila ;  (4)  that  of 
Symmachus  ;  (5)  the  Septuagint ;  (6)  the  transla- 
tion of  Theodotion.  Another  edition,  without  the 
two  Hebrew  columns,  was  called  the  Tetrapla,  and 
others  were  called  Octapla  and  Knneapla,  according 
to  the  eight  or  nine  diiBferent  texts  displayed.  It 
is  probable,  however,  that  the  last  named  was  not 
from  Origen's  hand.  In  this  great  work,  how- 
ever, a  colossal  fault  was  committed,  since  Origen 
did  not  content  himself  with  simply  placing 
the  text  of  the  Septuagint  beside  the  others.  He 
also  noted  in  the  text  itself  its  deviations  from  the 
Hebrew,  furnishing  such  words,  sentences,  or 
paragraphs  as  were  missing  in  the  Hebrew  with 
an  obelus,  or  sign  of  erasure,  and  interpolating 
with  an  asterisk  those  found  in  the  Hebrew  and 
missing  in  the  Septuagint,  using  for  this  purpose 
the  readings  found  in  other  translations,  princi- 
pally from  Theodotion's.  These  and  other  inter- 
ferences became  the  source  of  many  inaccuracies 
when  the  text  of  the  Septuagint  of  the  Hexapla 
came  to  be  copied  in  the  later  years,  often  with 


THE   GRKKK   TRANSLATIONS  89 

the  neglect  of  Origeii's  critical  marks ;  so  that 
Origen  in  a  measure  defeated  the  purpose  of  his 
own  great  labors,  and  unwittingly  transmitted 
many  errors.  But  these  it  is  now  possible  to  cor- 
rect, since  the  critical  notes  of  Origen  are  extant 
and  can  be  applied. 

The  principal  manuscripts  of  the  Septuagint  are 
the  Uncials,  or  those  written  in  large  letters 
throughout ;  the  Cotton  fragments  of  the  fourth 
century;  the  Vatican  Codex,  No.  1209,  which 
holds  the  first  rank  with  respect  to  the  purity  of  the 
text ;  the  Sinai  tic  manuscript,  in  which  the  most 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  preserved,  with  which 
should  be  reckoned  the  smaller  portion  of  the 
same  document,  the  Codex  Friderico-Augustanus, 
discovered  by  Tischendorf  in  1846,  and  placed  in 
the  University  Library  at  Leipzig  ;  and  the  Alex- 
andrine Codex  in  the  British  Museum.  Other 
manuscripts  of  less  importance  exist,  but  need 
not  be  mentioned,  while  those  here  named  will 
be  more  fully  described  when  we  come  to  their 
interesting,  almost  romantic,  stories  in  connection 
with  the  New  Testament.  The  Septuagint  was 
first /r2;//^<^  entire  in  Greek  in  the  Compluteiisian 
Polyglot,  1514-1517. 

Considering  the  wonderful  history  of  the  Sep- 
tuagint, taking  into  account  its  early  acceptance 
by  the  Jews  and  its  almost  universal  use  for  at 
least  a  century  before  the  advent  of  Christ,  remem- 


90  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

bering  that  Jesus  himself  was  familiar  with  it,  and 
that  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  constantly 
quoted  from  it  instead  of  from  the  original  Hebrew, 
so  that  it  has  thrown  the  potency  of  its  language 
over  all  the  Christian  church  ;  in  view  too,  of  the 
great  fact  that  the  early  successes  of  Christianity 
are  almost  inconceivable  except  as  the  way  was 
prepared  by  the  diffusion  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
this  version  throughout  the  known  world,  we  can 
hardly  close  our  account  of  it  without  citing  the 
language  of  Dean  Stanley  :  "If  the  '  noble  army 
of  translators, '  as  they  have  been  sometimes  called, 
may  look  with  affectionate  veneration  on  Jerome's 
cell  of  Bethlehem,  on  lyuther's  study  in  the  castle 
of  the  Wartburg,  on  the  Jerusalem  chamber, 
where  twice  over  the  majestic  language  of  the 
English  Bible  has  been  revised,  yet  the  place  of 
their  most  sacred  pilgrimage  should  be  the  narrow, 
rocky  islet  of  the  Alexandrian  harbor,  where  was 
kindled  a  brighter  and  more  enduring  beacon  in 
the  intellectual  and  religious  sphere  even  than  the 
world-renowned  Pharos,  which  in  the  maritime 
world  has  been  the  parent  of  all  the  lights  that 
from  shore  to  shore  and  sea  to  sea  have  guided  the 
mariners  of  two  thousand  years." 

Other  Greek  translations  are  those  of  Aquila, 
Theodotion,  and  Symmachus,  the  last  named 
being  an  Bbionite  Christian,  whose  work  is  not 
of  so  much  value  for  criticism  upon  the  Old  Tes- 


THE  GREEK  TRANSI.ATIONS  9 1 

tament,  as  it  is  less  literal  than  the  others,  and 
transfers  the  spirit  of  the  original  more  faithfully 
than  it  does  the  letter.  Aquila  was  a  native  of 
Sinope,  in  Asia  Minor.  His  version  was  very 
literal  and  his  scrupulous  care  was  such  that  he 
made  a  second  edition  to  bring  it  even  nearer  than 
the  first  to  the  Hebrew  original.  The  work  was 
highly  esteemed  by  the  Jews,  who  called  it  the 
"  Hebrew  Verity. "  Irenaeus  says  that  Aquila  was 
a  proselyte  to  Judaism,  and  he  has  been  identified 
in  the  opinion  of  some  scholars  with  the  Aquila 
of  Acts  18:2,  but  this  is  more  than  doubtful,  not- 
withstanding the  identity  of  birthplace  in  Pontus. 
We  know  his  translation  only  through  Origen's 
Hexapla.  The  critical  value  of  it  is  great,  as  it 
is  very  close  to  the  original,  and  a  comparison 
shows  that  Aquila  had  very  nearly  the  same  text 
that  our  Hebrew  Bibles  have  to-day.  But  the 
version  has  not  been  without  suspicion,  since 
Irenaeus  and  others  of  the  Christian  Fathers  have 
accused  Aquila  of  altering  certain  passages  relat- 
ing to  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the  Jews,  so  that 
the  latter  were  furnished  with  a  powerful  weapon 
against  the  church.  But  if  Aquila  was  a  convert 
to  Christianity,  as  those  who  find  him  mentioned 
in  Acts  18  :  2  believe,  why  should  he  have  done 
this  ?  It  can  only  be  explained  by  giving  some 
credit  to  the  story  that  he  was  at  first  not  a  Jew, 
but  a  Roman,  or  Greek,  and  was  sent  by  the  Em- 


Q2  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF   THE   FAITH 

peror  Hadrian  to  Jerusalem  as  a  surveyor  and  archi- 
tect ;  that  while  there  he  was  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, but  insisting  on  the  practice  of  some  of 
his  old  pagan  customs,  was  reprimanded  by  the 
church.  This  quenched  his  half- kindled  zeal, 
and  he  immediately  left  the  church  and  became  a 
Jew ;  and  as  is  often  the  case  with  perverts,  he 
became  more  zealous  even  than  those  whom  he 
had  joined,  and  devoted  himself  utterly  to  his  new 
faith.  Thus  his  translation  was  produced.  It  is 
quite  true  that  the  version  shows  some  traces  of 
dogmatic  influence,  and  it  stands  as  an  indication 
of  the  hostilities  of  the  early  part  of  the  second 
century  between  the  Jews  and  the  Christians. 
Indeed,  the  existence  of  all  of  these  Greek  ver- 
sions as  against  the  Septuagint  shows  the  same 
thing.  The  whole  Jewish  world  was  now  becom- 
ing more  closely  allied  to  the  Palestinian  Syna- 
gogue. The  rise  of  the  new  Christianity  had 
concentrated  attention  upon  the  home  land  and 
its  conflict.  The  appeal  was  more  and  more  to 
the  Palestinian  Bible  in  its  exact  readings,  rather 
than  to  the  more  free  Greek  Bible  of  the  Disper- 
sion. The  constant  use  of  the  latter  by  the 
Christians  and  the  overwhelming  force  of  their 
arguments  from  the  Scriptures  drove  the  Hellen- 
istic Jews  from  their  own  citadel  to  the  refuge 
afforded  by  the  Hebrew  Bible  itself.  And  so  it 
came  to  pass  that  the  Jews  were  once  more  cen- 


THE   GREEK  TRANSLATIONS  93 

tralized  in  Palestine  and  its  field  of  strife ;  and 
the  Hebrew  Bible  asserted  again  its  supremacy. 
The  new  translations  were  imperatively  demanded 
for  the  new  emergency,  and  they  thus  mark  in 
the  most  interesting  manner  the  history  of  the 
struggle  between  Judaism  and  Christianity/ 

Theodotion's  version  needs  but  a  few  words 
after  what  has  been  said.  He  too  was  a  proselyte 
and  not  a  native  Jew.  His  version  was  made 
about  the  same  time  as  Aquila's,  or  in  the  first 
half  of  the  second  century.  It  is  more  a  close 
revision  of  the  Septuagint  than  an  entirely  new 
translation  from  the  Hebrew.  His  work  came 
into  no  very  wide  acceptance  with  the  Jews,  and 
is  chiefly  noteworthy  for  the  adoption  by  the 
Christian  church  of  his  book  of  Daniel,  which 
has  been  preserved  to  us  complete  in  only  one 
manuscript,  the  Codex  Chisianus.  It  is  to  be  re- 
marked that  this  translation  of  Daniel  preserves 
the  apocryphal  additions  to  that  book,  and  from 
this  they  were  translated  by  Jerome  in  the  Latin 
Vulgate,  an  account  of  which  is  given  in  another 
chapter. 

*  Schiirer,  "  The  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Qirist,''  III.,  3,  169. 


VI 

THE  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TAI.MUD 

TRANSIvATIONS  of  the  Old  Testament  into 
foreign  tongues  were  not  the  only  documents 
besides  the  Hebrew  manuscripts  which  were  of 
use  in  the  popular  understanding  of  the  Scriptures. 
We  have  described  the  very  early  practice  of  trans- 
lating or  targuming  the  Hebrew,  when  it  was 
read  in  the  synagogues  ;  and  while  this  custom 
gave  rise  to  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  sacred 
writings,  and  was  supplemented  by  a  sort  of  run- 
ning commentary,  these  translations  were  not  com- 
mitted to  writing  for  a  very  considerable  space  of 
time  on  account  of  the  great  reverence  for  the 
sacred  rolls  themselves.  But  as  time  went  on  and 
this  prejudice  decreased,  while  also  the  volume  of 
comments  very  largely  increased,  it  was  found 
necessary  to  reduce  to  written  form  all  this  material, 
and  this  literature  fell  into  the  following  classes : 

I.  The  Targums,  or  translations  into  the 
common  language  of  the  people,  or  Aramaic. 

II.  The  TaIvMUD  (Ivcarning),  a  collection  of 
writings  consisting  of  paraphrases,  various  oral 
teachings,  commentaries,  and  similar  materials, 
gathered  under  two  heads  : 

94 


THK  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TALMUD      95 

1.  The  MisJma  (Repetition),  oral  teachings 
transmitted  from  earliest  times  and  including  ex- 
planations of  Scripture ;  and 

2.  The  Gema7'a  (Completion),  comments  upon 
the  Mishna. 

We  shall  consider  these  in  their  order. 

The  Targums  are  the  earliest  and  most  im- 
portant writings  of  this  great  mass  of  Jewish 
literature.  Upon  a  previous  page  the  doubt  has 
been  expressed  about  the  earliest  scene  to  which 
has  been  fondly  assigned  the  distinction  of  being 
the  first  historical  instance  of  targurning.  The 
Jews  have  pointed  back  to  Ezra  and  that  affecting 
scene  before  the  water  gate  in  Jerusalem,  when 
the  copy  of  the  Law  was  brought  forth  and  read 
to  the  great  congregation.  If  the  people  had  not 
forgotten  its  language  they  had  lost  sight  of  its 
requirements,  and  knew  only  by  dim  tradition  of 
the  ancient  glories  of  their  nation.  Then  "  Ezra 
opened  the  book  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people ' ' 
as  he  stood  on  the  "  pulpit  of  wood  "  erected  for 
the  occasion.  But  the  people  could  not  under- 
stand, and  those  who  had  been  selected  ''read  in 
the  book  in  the  law  of  God  distinctly,  and  gave 
the  sense,  and  caused  them  to  understand  the 
reading."  One  would  like  to  believe,  as  the 
legend  has  it,  that  this  was  the  beginning  of  all 
the  translations  henceforth  given  in  the  syna- 
gogues so  long  as  the  Jewish  worship  should  last. 


96  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

Ezra  is  fondly  called  the  first  methurge^nan^  our 
word  dragoman  or  interpreter.  But  whether  the 
custom  began  with  him  or  not,  and  whether  it 
prevailed  in  the  time  of  Jesus  ^  or  came  in  later, 
very  early  in  our  era  every  synagogue  had  its  inter- 
preter, who  followed  the  reader  of  the  Scripture 
with  a  translation  into  the  vernacular  for  the  con- 
gregation. We  have  noted  already  how  for  centu- 
ries this  practice  of  targuming  prevailed  without 
any  writings  lest  the  written  words  of  the 
methurgeman  might  be  mistaken  for  the  real 
Scripture  or  supplant  it  in  the  reverence  of  the 
people.  A  late  legend  speaks  of  a  targum  of  the 
book  of  Job  found  in  the  days  of  Gamaliel,  who 
ordered  it  to  be  buried  quickly  under  the  very 
foundations  of  the  walls  of  the  temple,  where  cer- 
tainly it  would  be  likely  to  do  no  harm.  This 
prejudice  against  written  translations  was  of  long 
continuance  ; "  but  we  can  easily  imagine  that  in 
spite  of  it  the  continued  repetitions  in  the  syna- 
gogues would  take  on  themselves  a  fixed  form. 
At  last  some  one  was  bold  enough  to  break  over 
the  custom,  either  for  the  sake  of  convenience  or  to 
give  a  wider  circulation  to  the  sacred  books,  and 
the  voluminous  oral  interpretations,  which  might 

^  Compare  Luke  4  :  16-20,  where  special  mention  of  the 
methurgeman  does  not  occur. 

2  Kautzsch  thinks  the  foundation  fox  the  earUer  Targums  may 
have  been  laid  in  the  first  century  before  Christ. 


THE  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TALMUD      97 

have  become  by  this  time  even  verbally  crystal- 
ized  in  large  measure,  were  written  out. 

The  value  of  the  Targums  for  the  criticism  of 
the  text,  however,  is  but  small,  especially  as  the 
earliest  which  we  possess  was  written  after  the 
Massoretic  text  was  already  established.  They  are 
also  too  free  to  allow  the  most  exact  comparisons. 
The  most  important  of  the  Targums  are  the  fol- 
lowing : 

I.  The  Targiun  of  Onkelos.  It  comprises  the 
Pentateuch.  Who  was  Onkelos?  Various  con- 
jectures have  sought  to  answer  the  question.  It 
has  been  held  that  he  was  a  native  of  Babylon. 
Others  have  said  that  he  was  born  in  Sinope,  in 
Pontus,  and  these  have  identified  him  with 
Aquila,  whose  translation  into  Greek  has  been 
mentioned,  the  name  Onkelos  being  only  another 
form  of  xA.quilas  or  Aquila.  He  has  been  described 
as  a  pupil  of  the  great  Rabbi  Hillel,  most  famous 
a  half-century  before  Christ,  and  this  supposition 
would  make  the  pupil  perhaps  a  contemporary  of 
Jesus.  The  Talmud  speaks  of  an  Onkelos  as  con- 
temporary with  Gamaliel,  possibly  one  of  his 
pupils,  and  in  that  case  he  may  have  been  contem- 
porary and  perhaps  a  fellow-scholar  with  Paul. 
This  Onkelos  of  the  Talmud  can  be  identified  with 
the  Greek  translator  Aquila.  But  to  conclude  that 
Aquila  was  the  author  of  the  Targum  of  Onke- 
los, or  that  this  Onkelos  was  himself  its  author, 
I 


98  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

seems  to  be  without  warrant.  Geiger,  as  quoted 
by  Prof.  Wright/  maintains  that  this  Targum, 
because  of  its  extreme  closeness  to  the  Hebrew 
text,  was  called  the  Targum  of  Onkelos,  not  be- 
cause it  was  either  written  or  edited  by  him.  As 
the  Greek  of  Onkelos  (Aquila)  was  remarkable  for 
its  literal  character,  so  this  Targum  was  literal, 
of  an  Onkelos  character,  and  thus  became  known 
as  the  Onkelos  Targum.  In  reality  it  appears  to 
have  been  the  work  of  no  single  author  or  editor, 
but  the  production  of  many  hands,  perhaps  of  a 
school.  In  it  there  is  a  marked  avoidance  of  the 
legends  and  stories  so  often  found  in  the  later 
Jewish  works,  making  them  almost  unparalleled 
for  their  absurd  fancies,  a  wilderness  of  rubbish. 
This  Targum  is  simple,  reserved,  and  dignified, 
and  it  thus  occupies  a  place  far  above  the  level 
even  of  the  Targums  that  follow  it  most  closely  in 
time. 

2.  Jonathan  on  the  Prophets,  Jonathan  also  is 
said  to  have  been  a  scholar  of  Hillel.  A  wilder 
tradition  says  that  he  wrote  from  the  personal  dic- 
tation of  Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Malachi.  The 
Talmud  says  that  when  this  Targum  was  given 
to  Jonathan  by  the  prophets  the  land  of  Israel 
was  shaken  by  a  great  earthquake,  and  a  voice 
was  heard,  asking :  ''  Who  is  this  who  has  re- 
vealed my  secrets  unto  the  sons  of  men  ?  "     To 

^  "  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,"  p.  43. 


THE  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TALMUD      99 

which  Jonathan  answered  with  much  boldness. 
It  is  much  more  free  than  the  rendering  of  Onke- 
los,  and  is  doubtless  of  later  date.  The  English 
Authorized  version  of  Isaiah  33  :  22,  reads :  "For 
the  lyord  is  our  judge,  the  I^ord  is  our  lawgiver, 
the  Lord  is  our  king  ;  he  will  save  us,"  and  the 
Targum  enlarges  the  verse  thus  :  ' '  For  the  Lord 
is  our  judge,  who  delivered  us  with  his  power 
from  Mizraim  ;  the  Lord  is  our  teacher,  for  he  has 
given  us  the  doctrine  of  the  Torah  from  Sinai  ; 
the  Lord  is  our  king,  he  will  deliver  us  and  give 
us  righteous  restitution  from  the  army  of  Gog." 
Another  example  offers  from  the  familiar  passage 
in  the  first  book  of  Kings  19  :  11,  12  ;  the  Targum 
reads  :  "And  he  said  (to  Elijah),  Arise  and  stand 
on  the  mountain  before  the  Lord.  And  God  re- 
vealed himself  and  before  him  a  host  of  angels  of 
the  wind,  cleaving  the  mountain  and  breaking 
the  rocks  before  the  Lord  ;  but  not  in  the  host  of 
angels  was  the  Shechinah.  And  after  the  host  of 
angels  of  the  wind  came  a  host  of  angels  of  com- 
motion ;  but  not  in  the  host  of  the  angels  of  com- 
motion was  the  Shechinah  of  the  Lord.  And  after 
the  host  of  the  angels  of  commotion  came  a  host 
of  angels  of  fire ;  but  not  in  the  host  of  the 
angels  of  fire  was  the  Shechinah  of  the  Lord. 
But  after  the  host  of  the  angels  of  the  fire  came 
voices  singing  in  the  silence."  These  are  good 
examples  of  the  tendency  to  amplify  the  original 


lOO  THE   PARCHMENTS   OK  THE   FAITH 

passages,  a  tendency  which  grew  as  time  ad- 
vanced, resulting  sometimes  in  grotesque  perver- 
sions, and  sometimes,  as  in  the  contrast  of  the  last 
words  of  the  above  example  with  the  preceding 
verses,  in  passages  of  great  beauty.  Several  other 
Targums  might  be  mentioned,  but  they  are  of 
slight  importance,  and  a  good  idea  of  all  is  ob- 
tained from  the  two  thus  presented.  There  are 
eight  in  all. 

The  Talmud  is  of  very  little  value  for  any 
points  of  criticism  as  to  the  mere  text  of  the  Old 
Testament ;  it  can  only  be  treated  here  in  brief, 
as  an  interesting  example  of  the  later  rabbinic 
freedom  with  respect  to  their  Scriptures  in  matters 
of  interpretation.  It  is  well  understood  how 
the  scribes,  even  before  the  time  of  Jesus,  had 
*'  hedged ''  the  Law  all  around  with  their  tradi- 
tions, so  that  the  Law  itself  was  hardly  regarded 
any  longer  in  its  purity,  while  the  ^' hedge"  by 
which  it  was  protected  made  men  miserable  with 
its  petty  exactions.  "  Woe  unto  you,  ye  lawyers," 
cried  Jesus,  "  for  ye  have  taken  away  the  key  of 
knowledge :  ye  entered  not  in  yourselves  and 
them  that  were  entering  in  ye  hindered."  *' Woe 
unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  for  ye  tithe  mint 
and  anise  and  rue,  and  all  manner  of  herbs,  and 
pass  over  judgment  and  the  love  of  God  :  these 
ought  ye  to  have  done  and  not  left  the  other 
undone."      This   practice   of   minute   definition, 


THE  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TALMUD     lOI 

already  established  in  the  time  of  Christ,  was  the 
foundation  of  the  later  writings  gathered  into  the 
Talmud,  and  it  had  become  so  exaggerated  in 
aftertimes  that  the  superiority  of  the  Talmud  in 
its  various  parts  to  the  Scriptures  themselves  was 
openly  taught.  The  Talmud  compared  with  the 
Law  was  as  wine  to  water  ;  one  might  neglect  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures,  but  to  read  the  Mishna 
was  meritorious,  and  to  read  the  Gemara  would 
win  the  greatest  rewards.  The  modern  reader  of 
the  Talmud  will  not  wonder  that  such  recom- 
pense was  promised  to  him  who  would  peruse  its 
pages,  for  they  are  a  great  mass  of  tedious  and 
generally  silly  writings,  having  almost  no  histori- 
cal or  philosophical  value,  with  only  occasional 
passages  of  force  and  beauty.  Dr.  J.  B.  Lightfoot, 
whose  mastery  of  the  rabbinic  learning  gives 
him  a  better  right  to  speak  of  it,  than  any  other, 
says  :  *'  The  almost  unconquerable  difficulties  of 
style,  the  frightful  roughness  of  the  language,  and 
the  amazing  emptiness  and  sophistry  of  the  mat- 
ters handled,  do  torture,  vex,  and  tire  him  that 
reads  them."  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  work 
as  printed  fills  twelve  or  thirteen  folios,  or  quarto 
volumes,  according  to  the  edition,  and  the  task  of 
reading  it  can  be  appreciated  better.  And  yet  it 
is  wrong  to  suppose  that  the  Talmud  has  no  oases 
of  refreshment.  Many  of  its  sayings  are  closely 
the  echo  of  Christ's  words.     IMany  passages  are 


I03  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

of  great  poetic  beauty  or  suggestiveiiess.  Pos- 
sibly some  of  Christ's  teaching  may  have  had  its 
first  human  origin  in  the  Talmudic  traditions 
taught  him  when  a  boy,  for  in  the  Tahnud  as 
written  later  are  many  peculiar  words,  phrases, 
and  doctrines  which  he  adapted  to  the  large  and 
new  thought  of  Christianity.  And  there  are  pas- 
sages which  point  back  to  the  old  Scriptures  with 
extreme  reverence  :  "  Turn  them,  and  turn  them 
again,  for  everything  is  to  be  found  in  them  "  ; 
"  Moses  was  commanded  to  give  six  hundred  and 
thirteen  commandments  to  the  people  ;  David  in 
the  fifteenth  Psalm  reduced  them  to  eleven ;  the 
prophet  Micah  reduced  them  to  three  :  '  What 
doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly  and 
to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God  ? '  Amos  reduced  them  to  one  :  '  Seek  ye 
me  and  ye  shall  live.'  " 

A  page  of  the  Talmud  presents  a  strange  ap- 
pearance. Somewhat  nearer  the  top  than  the 
center  of  the  page  there  is  a  quadrangular  para- 
graph of  ordinary  Hebrew  text  such  as  may  be 
seen  in  an  ordinary  octavo  Hebrew  Bible.  Around 
this  on  every  side  is  a  mass  of  printing  in  much 
smaller  type,  in  a  dialect  abounding  in  Aramaisms 
and  printed  in  rabbinic  characters  of  a  late  date. 
The  patch  of  largest  text  is  the  Mishna,  and  the 
text  all  around  it  is  the  Gemara,  or  commentar5^ 
Many  notes  are  added,  and  the  whole  appearance 


THE  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TALMUD    I03 

of  the  page  thus  divided  is  very  extraordinary  to  one 
accustomed  to  the  orderly  page  of  an  English  book. 

The  Talmud  exists  in  two  recensions,  the  Pales- 
tinian Talmud  and  the  Babylonian  Talmud,  dif- 
fering from  each  other  in  many  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  commentaries.  It  should  also  be  noted 
that  two  distinct  kinds  of  material  are  incorporated 
in  the  Talmud,  the  law  and  its  strict  interpreta- 
tion called  "Halacha,"  and  the  legends  developed 
from  the  sacred  history,  with  various  religious  and 
ethical  views,  to  which  the  general  name  "  Hag- 
gada "  was  given.  If  the  assignment  of  these 
terms  is  remembered  further  definition  will  be 
needless. 

The  Mishna^  which  is  common  to  both  Talmuds, 
contains  the  oldest  codified  traditional  Jewish  law 
that  has  come  down  to  our  time.  It  is  arranged 
in  six  great  sections,  written  in  Hebrew,  devoted 
almost  wholly  to  the  Halacha.  The  six  sections 
comprise  sixty-three  different  tracts,  and  a  mere 
list  of  them  is  of  value  as  showing  the  nature  of 
the  Mishna  and  the  kind  of  life  at  the  time. 

Section  I.  i.  Formulas  of  blessings  and 
prayers. 

2.  On  rights  of  the  poor  in  harvests. 

3.  The  treatment  of  fruits  and  tithing  them. 

4.  Illegal  mixing  of  animals,  vegetables,  cloth- 
ing, etc. 

5.  The  sabbatical  year. 


104  '^HE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

6.  The  dues  of  the  priests. 

7.  The  tithes  of  the  I^evites. 

8.  Secondary  tithes  to  be  paid  at  Jerusalem. 

9.  Dough  offerings  and  rules  for  baking. 

10.  Against  using  fruits  of  newly  planted  trees. 

11.  Presentation  of  firstlings. 
Section  II.     i.  The  Sabbath  festival. 

2.  Uniting  of  separate  localities  to  allow  freer 
journeys  on  the  Sabbath. 

3.  The  Passover. 

4.  The  half-shekel  tax. 

5.  The  day  of  Atonement. 

6.  The  feast  of  Tabernacles. 

7.  May  one  eat  an  egg  laid  on  a  feast  day. 

8.  The  New  Year  festival. 

9.  Fasting  and  mourning. 

10.  The  reading  of  the  ^^roll,"    that  is,  of  the 
book  of  Esther  on  the  feast  of  Purim. 

11.  The  feast  days  between   the   first  and   last 
feast  days  of  the  great  festivals. 

12.  The  duty  of  going  to  the  feasts  at  Jerusalem. 
Section    III.     i.    I^evirate   marriage   with    a 

brother-in-law. 

2.  Marriage  contracts. 

3.  Women's  vows. 

4.  The  Nazarite  vow. 

5.  Proceeding  against  suspected  adulterers. 

6.  Divorces. 

7.  Betrothals. 


THE  TARGUMS  AND  THE  TALMUD    105 

Section  IV.     i.   Injuries  and  legal  damages. 

2.  The  same  between  masters  and  slaves,  em- 
ployers and  employed,  borrowers  and  lenders. 

3.  Municipal  and  social  regulations. 

4.  The  Sanhedrin  and  criminal  law. 

5.  Punishment  by  flogging. 

6.  Oaths  and  sacrilege. 

7.  Witnesses. 

8.  Idolatry  and  heathenism. 

9.  Sayings  of  famous  scribes  from  B.  c.  200  to 
A.  D.  200. 

10.  Unintentional  offenses. 

Section  V.     i.  Sacrifices. 

2.  Meat  offerings. 

3  to  II.  Similar  regulations  concerning  offer- 
ings. 

Section  VI.  i.  Household  furniture  and  its 
purifying. 

2.  Defilement  of  tents  and  houses. 

3.  Leprosy. 

4.  Pollution  contracted  from  the  dead. 

5.  Lesser  defilements. 

6.  Water  fitted  for  bathing. 

7  to  12.   Further  regulations  about  defilements. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Mishna  thus  follows 
pretty  closely  the  legal  outlines  of  the  penta- 
teuchal  regulations. 

The  Gemara  professes  to  complete  the  Mishna  by 
comments  upon  it,  and  there  are  two  different  forms 


I06  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

of  the  Gemara,  the  Jerusalem  and  the  Babylonian. 
Its  interpretatons  are  whimsical  to  the  last  deg^ree. 
"The  Holy  One — blessed  be  he!  will  in  the 
future  bring  together  Mount  Sinai  and  Tabor 
upon  Carmel,  and  place  Jerusalem  on  the  top  of 
them ;  for  it  is  written,  '  The  mountain  of  the 
Lord's  house  shall  be  established  on  the  top  of  the 
mountains.' "  The  following  is  from  the  tract 
Sota  :  "  Once  when  the  Persian  empire  was  at  the 
summit  of  its  power,  an  attempt  was  made  to  dis- 
cover the  body  of  Moses.  A  countless  host  of  Persian 
soldiers  was  sent  to  search  Mt.  Nebo.  When  they 
came  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  they  saw  the 
sepulchre  of  Moses  distinctly  at  the  bottom.  They 
hastened  to  the  valley  and  then  they  saw  it  at  the 
top.  Thus  the  search  went  on  until  they  were 
compelled  to  give  it  up."  With  regard  to  the 
manna  in  the  desert  and  the  belief  that  it  was 
angels'  food  and  was  prepared  by  angels,  it  is 
written  that  "it  is  in  the  third  firmament,  called 
Schechakim,  where  the  mills  are  in  which  the 
manna  is  ground.  .  .  And  when  the  manna  fell, 
pearls  and  diamonds  fell  with  it  and  heaped  them- 
selves up  on  the  mountains,  so  that  they  could  be 
seen  from  far."  Sometimes  the  tracts  are  merely 
childish,  sometimes  they  approach  the  blas- 
phemous :  "  The  day  has  twelve  hours  ;  in  the 
first  three  God  sits  and  studies  the  Law  ;  in  the 
ilext  three  he  sits  and  judges  the  world  ;  in  the 


THE  TARGUMS   AND  THE   TALMUD  107 

next  three  he  sits  and  nourishes  the  whole  world  : 


and  in  the  last  three  he  sits  and  plays  with  lyevia- 
than."  Some  of  our  modern  nursery  tales  seem 
to  have  originated  in  early  Jewish  times,  and  to 
have  found  their  first  record  in  the  Talmud.  We 
find  almost  exactly  "  The  House  that  Jack  Built," 
so  far  as  its  structural  form  is  concerned  ;  and  the 
story  has  an  allegorical  force,  the  kid  being  Israel, 
the  cat  Babylon,  the  dog  Persia,  the  staff  Greece, 
the  fire  Rome,  the  water  the  Turks,  the  ox  the 
European  nations,  who  are  to  rescue  the  land  of 
Palestine  from  the  Mohammedans,  the  butcher, 
the  angel  of  death,  and  the  Holy  One  or  Messiah, 
referring  to  successive  victors  by  whom  the  tri- 
umph of  God's  kingdom  is  to  be  secured  at  last. 
We  cannot  give  the  whole  story,  but  it  goes  on  in 
the  familiar  fashion : 

A  kid,  a  kid  my  father  bought 
For  two  pieces  of  money  : 
A  kid,  a  kid. 

Then  came  the  cat  and  ate  the  kid 
That  my  father  bought 
For  two  pieces  of  money  : 
A  kid,  a  kid. 

Then  came  the  dog  and  bit  the  cat 
That  ate  the  kid  that  my  father  bought 
For  two  pieces  of  money  : 
A  kid,  a  kid. 

But  the  most  extravagant  of  these  tales  arose 


Io8  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

only  in  the  later  times,  when  from  the  simpler 
age  in  which  the  Christian  era  began  the  world 
had  passed  into  the  darkness  that  soon  deepened 
into  the  period  known  as  the  Dark  Ages.  It  is 
peculiarly  interesting  to  note  that  even  this  Jewish 
tradition  at  the  time  of  Christ  was  not  nearly  so 
fanciful  and  exuberant  as  it  became  four  centuries 
later.  In  common  with  the  intellectual  culture 
of  the  whole  world  at  the  time  of  the  advent,  the 
Jewish  mind  was  comparatively  clear,  vigorous, 
and  discriminating,  and  the  new  religion  with  its 
new  Scriptures  had  to  meet  a  keen  and  skeptical 
criticism  in  which  Greek  and  Roman  and  Jew 
conspired  to  test  the  quality  of  the  new  faith  to  its 
utmost.  We  are  again  impelled  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  period  in  which  Christianity  first  brought 
its  new  faith  to  the  world,  was  one  peculiarly 
adapted  to  its  reception,  not  only  on  account  of 
the  general  spiritual  hunger  of  mankind,  but  also 
because  the  intellectual  condition  of  the  time  was 
one  of  strong  vitality. 


VII 

OTHER  VERSIONS  AND   LITERATURE 

ONLY  brief  mention  need  be  made  of  other 
translations  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the 
works  of  writers  from  which  our  knowledge  of  the 
text  is  aided.  Many  of  these  works  are  of  even 
more  significance  in  connection  with  the  New 
Testament,  and  will  be  mentioned  again  in  future 
chapters. 

The  Syriac  versions  claim  the  first  attention  ; 
and  of  these  the  Peshito^  the  Simple  or  Literal,  is 
most  noteworthy  on  account  of  its  close  adherence 
to  the  Hebrew  original.  Syria  was  a  name  ap- 
plied to  a  large  extent  of  country  west  of  the 
Euphrates  River,  and  between  it  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea.  At  one  time  Syria  included  Pales- 
tine, but  at  the  time  when  this  translation  was 
made  the  latter  was  a  separate  province.  By  this 
time  Christianity  had  widely  spread,  and  Syria 
had  received  its  missionaries  and  a  knowledge  of 
the  truth.  There  is  an  interesting  and  beautiful 
legend  told  by  Busebius,  who  wrote  in  the  early 
part  of  the  fourth  centur}-,  that  somehow  a  king 
of  Syria  in  the  time  of  Christ,  named  Abgarus, 
had  learned  of  the  Saviour  and  sent  a  letter  to  him, 

K  109 


no    THK  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

requesting  him  to  come  and  heal  him  of  a  disease, 
and  teach  him  the  truth.  The  letter  beautifully 
says,  in  closing  :  "  I  have  heard  too,  that  the  Jews 
murmur  against  thee,  and  are  plotting  to  do  thee 
harm.  I  have  a  very  small  but  noble  country, 
which  is  enough  for  us  both. ' '  To  this  invitation 
Jesus  is  said  to  have  answered  kindly,  but  de- 
clining it  on  account  of  his  mission  :  ' '  Blessed  art 
thou,  Abgarus,  who  hast  not  seen  and  yet  hast  be- 
lieved in  me,  for  it  is  written  concerning  me  that 
they  who  have  seen  me  will  not  believe,  that  they 
who  have  not  seen  me  may  believe  and  live.  But 
in  regard  to  what  thou  hast  written,  that  I  should 
come  to  thee,  it  is  needful  that  I  should  fulfill  all 
things  here  for  which  I  have  been  sent,  and  after 
this  fulfillment  to  be  received  up  again  by  him 
who  sent  me.  And  after  I  have  been  received 
up,  I  will  send  one  of  my  disciples  to  thee,  who 
may  heal  thy  disease  and  give  life  both  to  thee 
and  to  those  who  are  with  thee."  Doubtless  these 
letters  are  of  a  date  too  late  to  be  genuine  ;  nor  is 
it  necessary  to  seek  any  such  origin  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  in  Syria.  We  have  in  the  book  of  the 
Acts  and  other  Scriptures  full  testimony  to  the 
early  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  Antioch  and  else- 
where within  the  boundaries  of  this  country.  And 
as  Christianity  spread  it  was  natural  that  a  demand 
for  the  apostolic  writings  should  arise,  and  coupled 
with  this  a  wish  for  the  older  Scriptures  also,  espe- 


OTHER  VERSIONS   AND   LITERATURE        III 

cially  on  the  part  of  converts  from  Judaism.  As 
will  be  seen  later,  there  are  remains  of  the  Gospels 
in  Syriac  probably  older  than  the  Peshito  ;  but 
the  Peshito  of  the  Old  Testament,  dating  probably 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century,  is  of 
greatest  value  for  textual  purposes  and  with  ref- 
erence to  the  canon.  In  the  case  of  disputed 
passages  an  appeal  to  this  version  would  go  far 
toward  settling  the  question  as  to  what  the 
Christians  of  the  sub-apostolic  age  read  in  their 
Bibles.  The  Peshito  is  of  great  value  in  connec- 
tion with  the  text  of  the  New  Testament.  Other 
Syriac  versions,  like  the  Hexaplar  Syriac  transla- 
tion of  the  Septuagint  (a.  d.  616-618)  are  of  less 
value  as  witnesses  to  the  Hebrew  text  than  in  their 
relation  to  the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint. 

Versions  in  x\rabic,  no  less  than  eight,  contain 
the  whole  or  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  that  of 
Saadis  being  the  earliest  and  most  important ;  but 
when  it  is  said  that  he  died  as  late  as  A.  d.  942, 
it  may  easily  be  seen  that  none  of  the  Arabic 
versions  come  near  enough  to  the  ancient  originals 
to  be  of  great  value  in  criticism.  An  interesting 
group  of  translations  is  the  Egyptian,  including 
the  Coptic  for  I^ower  Egypt,  the  Sahidic  for 
Upper  Eg>'pt,  and  the  Bashmuric  in  a  dialect 
spoken  in  a  province  of  the  Delta  of  the  Nile. 
Versions  are  also  found  in  Armenian,  Persian, 
Ethiopic,  and  other  tongues,  but  they  are  of  such 


112  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

secondary  importance  that  a  mere  mention  of  them 
is  enough. 

The  ancient  Latin  versions,  based  on  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  are  of  great  value.  The  Old  Latin  is  the 
oldest,  made  by  unknown  translators  and  widely 
used  in  Africa  in  the  second  century.  Its  docu- 
ments differed  much  in  their  texts,  and  Augustine 
gave  preference  to  one  to  which,  in  the  De  Doc- 
trina  Christi^  he  applies  the  term  Itala,  a  word 
often  used  since  as  applicable  to  the  Old  Latin 
in  general.  But  it  should  not  be  so  used.  If  it  is 
not  the  error  of  a  scribe,  it  might  designate  Italy 
as  the  place  where  Augustine  believed  the  version 
was  made.  Only  fragments  remain,  containing 
the  whole  books  of  the  Psalms  and  Esther,  with  a 
part  of  the  Apocrypha.^ 

The  Vulgate  is  of  special  interest  for  many  rea- 
sons. Its  story  is  one  of  long  and  patient  labor  on 
the  part  of  one  man  devoting  himself  to  solitary 
toils  that  would  have  dismayed  many,  meeting 
with  opposition  and  obloquy  when  the  results  were 
given  to  the  world,  but  earning  at  last  the  accept- 
ance of  his  work  by  the  people,  and  having  the 
honor  of  its  being  the  first  book  printed  in  Europe 
after  the  invention  of  the  art.  The  older  Latin 
had  served  its  purpose  well,  but  in  the  process  of 
time  its  defects  had  increased  and  become  better 

^  See  later  pages  of  this  book  for  the  Old  Latin  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 


OTIIKR   VERSIONS   AND   LITERATURE         II3 

known,  so  that  the  need  of  revision,  if  not  of  a 
wholly  new  translation,  was  apparent.    During  the 
fourth  century  the  I^atin  churches  grew  rapidly  in 
power  and  importance,  as  might  have  been  fore- 
seen   the  moment  when    Constantine   the   Great 
espoused  the  cause  of  Christianity,  declared  him- 
self a  convert,  and  made  the  new  faith  the  religion 
of  his  empire.     Many  forces  besides  the  imperial 
influence  tended  in  the  same  direction,  and  the 
great  leaders  of  thought  were  no  longer  confined 
to    Alexandria,    Antioch,     and     Constantinople. 
Rome  was  regnant  in  the  West,  and  just  at  this 
time  the  Italian  influence  was  exceedingly  great. 
The  I^atin  scholars  were  anxiously  looking  for  the 
means  to  translate  anew  the  Bible.    It  was  a  great 
task.     Who  would  undertake  it?     The   answer 
was  given  by  the  arrival  in  Rome  of  a  monk  from 
Bethlehem,  who  was  probably  the  man  best  fitted 
of  all  the  scholars  in  the  world  for  the  work.     He 
was  Sophronius  Eusebius  Hieronymus,  or  as  he  is 
generally  known,   St.  Jerome.     He  was  born  at 
Stridon  in  Dalmatia,  A.  d.  329.     We  need  not  tell 
the  story  of  his  earlier  years,  except  to  say  that 
they  were  filled  with  the  pursuits  of  a  scholar, 
so  that  he  was  famous  for  his  acquirements  both 
in  the  Bast  and  the  West  when  in  382  he  arrived 
in  Rome.    There  he  at  once  assumed  an  important 
place,  and  became  the  secretary  of  Pope  Damasus. 
He  allied  himself  with  the  strong  church  party 


114         'J^HE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

that  favored  monasticism,  and  in  the  strife  of  the 
time  was  the  leading  figure.  He  was  a  splendid 
fighter,  and  the  pages  of  his  writings  teem  with 
passages  of  a  character  either  utterly  to  destroy  or 
rapidly  to  make  enemies.  His  austerities  were 
marked,  and  his  followers  were  famed  for  the  cruel 
penances  that  he  exacted.  One  of  them,  a  tender 
young  widow  named  Blesilla,  died  beneath  her 
self-inflicted  penalties,  and  the  public  verdict  laid 
the  responsibility  for  the  tragedy  at  Jerome's  door. 
"Why  do  we  tolerate  these  accursed  monks"? 
was  the  cry  raised  at  Blesilla's  funeral.  ''Away 
with  them,  stone  them,  cast  them  into  the  Tiber !  " 
Jerome  faced  all  the  hostility  with  contempt,  and 
often  with  outspoken  denunciation,  and  showed 
himself  not  only  a  man  who  could  subject  himself 
to  all  manner  of  privation  and  hardship,  but  also 
compel  others  to  recognize  his  power  and  go  in  his 
ways.  It  was  this  man,  practically  the  architect 
of  monasticism,  who  reluctantly  at  first,  but  after- 
ward with  enthusiasm,  gave  himself  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  desired  Latin  translation  which 
was  destined  to  do  more  than  any  other  one  agent 
to  shape  Western  Christianity  during  at  least  ten 
centuries.  Dean  Milman  says^ :  "Jerome's  Bible 
is  a  wonderful  work,  still  more  as  achieved  by  one 
man  and  that  by  a  Western  Christian,  even  with 
all  tlie  advantages  of  study  and  residence  in  the 

1  "  Latin  Christianity,"  I.,  2,  117. 


OTHER   VERSIONS   AND   LITERATURE        II 5 

Bast.  It  almost  created  a  new  language.^  The 
inflexible  Latin  became  pliant  and  expansive,  nat- 
uralizing foreign  Eastern  imagery,  Eastern  modes 
of  expression  and  of  thought,  and  Eastern  relig- 
ious notions,  most  uncongenial  to  its  own  genius 
and  character;  and  yet  retaining  much  of  its  own 
peculiar  strength,  solidity,  and  majesty.  .  .  The 
Vulgate  was  even  more  perhaps  than  the  papal 
power  the  foundation  of  Latin  Christianity.  .  . 
the  great  work  of  Jerome  could  not  have  been 
achieved  at  Rome,  assuredly  not  by  a  pope.  It 
was  in  his  cell  at  Bethlehem,  meditating  and  com- 
pleting the  Vulgate,  that  Jerome  fixed  for  centu- 
ries the  dominion  of  Latin  Christianity  over  the 
mind  of  man." 

.  Jerome  began  the  work  of  translation  while  in 
Rome,  but  Pope  Damasus  died  and  he  soon  de- 
serted that  city,  not  defeated  but  wearied  with  its 
strifes,  and  content  to  fulminate  from  afar  against 
the  sins  of  that  luxurious  center  of  the  world's 
life.  He  had  begun  upon  the  New  Testament, 
which  he  revised,  using  the  Old  Latin  (Itala)  ver- 
sion as  the  basis,  and  the  Greek  versions  and 
the  collations  of  Origen  as  well  as  the  original 
text  as  aids.     This  part  was  finished  in  the  year 

1  In  this  respect  the  Vulgate  may  be  compared  with  the  EngHsh 
versions  and  their  influence  upon  the  EngHsh  language.  See  "  The 
History  of  the  English  Bible,''  by  Prof.  T.  Harwood  Pattison, 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  pp.  131-144;   171-185. 


Il6  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF   THE   FAITH 

385.  Then  the  Old  Testament  was  taken  up  and 
the  Psalms  were  translated,  and  afterward  several 
other  books;  but  with  growing  dissatisfaction 
on  the  part  both  of  the  scholar  himself  and 
the  world  for  which  he  was  toiling,  Jerome  felt 
that  he  ought  to  be  doing  it  more  thoroughly, 
starting  with  the  original  Hebrew,  and  proceed- 
ing fearlessly  and  in  full  satisfaction  of  his  con- 
science as  a  scholar.  The  clergy  took  the  other 
view :  Jerome  was  far  too  thorough  ;  the  changes 
from  the  old  version  were  too  radical ;  the  familiar 
passages,  endeared  by  long  usage,  were  changed 
too  much  ;  the  people  would  get  the  idea  that 
they  could  not  trust  their  Bible  ;  and  so  all  the 
objections  that  are  always  used  at  such  times  were 
hurled  at  the  devoted  scholar.  But  we  have  al- 
ready seen  that  Jerome  was  not  made  of  timorous 
stuff.  He  hurled  back  his  burning  sentences 
against  the  "two-legged  asses,"  and  straightway 
resolved  to  follow  his  own  judgment.  He  cast 
away  the  old  sources  from  which  he  had  been 
working,  and  went  back  to  the  Hebrew  manu- 
scripts themselves.  He  was  in  Bethlehem  and 
had  peculiar  facilities  for  the  acquisition  of  He- 
brew and  access  to  Hebrew  documents,  some  of 
which  doubtless  were  very  ancient  even  then. 
And  he  went  on  year  after  year,  honestly  and 
boldly,  doing  his  work  as  best  he  knew  how,  and 
producing  at  last  a  version  of  the  Old  Testament 


OTHER  VERSIONS  AND  LITERATURE        II7 

which  was  to  be  the  received  text  of  the  Latin 
church,  and  the  basis  of  many  other  translations. 
But  he  did  not  live  to  see  its  triumph.  It  was 
not  until  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  had  passed 
after  he  was  laid  to  rest,  that  Gregory  the  Great 
turned  the  tide  in  favor  of  Jerome's  translation  by 
using  it  in  his  *'Moralia."  The  papal  example 
was  enough,  and  at  last  the  version  found  proper 
appreciation,  and  the  Council  of  Trent  (1546), 
declared  it  "authentic."  This  full  adoption  by 
the  church  demanded  a  publication  of  a  standard 
text,  and  in  the  pontificate  of  Sixtus  V.,  in  1590, 
an  editio  autheritica  appeared.  A  papal  Bull  de- 
clared this  edition  to  be  ^'true,  lawful,  authentic, 
and  authoritative  in  all  public  and  private  dispu- 
tations. ' '  But,  alas  even  for  papal  infallibility ! 
the  work  had  hardly  come  into  use  before  serious 
errors  appeared  and  emendations  were  made  in 
some  cases  by  pen  and  in  others  by  printed  slips 
pasted  over  the  text.  A  new  edition  was  inevita- 
ble, and  one  was  issued  in  1592  by  Clement  VIII., 
having  about  three  thousand  variations  from  the 
former  edition.  Other  editions  were  issued  in 
1593  and  1598,  but  even  to  the  present  time  no 
critical  edition  has  been  published  which  is  of 
satisfactory  value. 

The  text  of  the  Vulgate  is  not  of  uniform  char- 
acter, some  portions  having  much  greater  merit 
than  others  both  as  to  sources  and  translation. 


Il8         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

The  larger  portion  of  the  Old  Testament  is  from 
the  Hebrew,  buc  not  without  influence  from  other 
sources  ;  the  Psalms  and  the  apocryphal  books  of 
Baruch,  Wisdom,  Bcclesiasticus,  and  Maccabees, 
are  from  the  Itala.  The  New  Testament,  which 
was  first  completed,  is  not  so  good  as  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Jerome  added  to  his  text  critical  annota- 
tions, but  these  are  lost  from  the  Vulgate  as  we 
have  it,  greatly  to  the  detriment  of  the  work. 
The  great  version  of  the  Roman  church  in  mod- 
ern times,  the  Douay  Bible,  containing  the  Old 
Testament  rendered  in  English  at  Douay  in 
1609,  and  the  New  Testament  completed  at 
Rheims  in  1582,  was  made  from  the  Vulgate  by 
the  Romanists  who  had  fled  from  England  upon 
the  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  the  Psalter 
and  other  portions  of  the  English  Prayer  Book 
are  also  from  this  version.  Even  to-day,  there- 
fore, and  notwithstanding  the  larger  learning  that 
the  centuries  have  brought,  the  labors  of  the 
solitary  monk  in  the  cell  of  Bethlehem  are  bear- 
ing fruit,  and  the  faithfulness  and  heroism  of  the 
ancient  scholar  are  influencing  the  life  of  this  far- 
ofl"  time.  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  artist  c>f  Nurem- 
berg, pictured  St.  Jerome  in  his  cell  with  a  fox 
and  a  lion,  symbols  of  skill  and  strength,  lying  at 
his  feet  as  he  labored  at  his  great  task.  Skill  and 
strength  were  in  it,  and  like  every  other  good  and 
genuine  work,  it  endures  the  test  of  time. 


VIII 

MATERIALS     FOR     THE    NEW    TESTAMENT    TEXT 

"l  VHEN  we  come  to  the  materials  for  the  criti- 

» '  cism  of  the  text  of  the  New  Testament,  we 
not  only  reach  the  most  important  part  of  our 
study,  but  find  the  greatest  satisfaction  in  their 
abundance  and  antiquity.  It  was  said  of  the 
manuscripts  of  the  Old  Testament  that  none  are 
extant  of  a  date  earlier  than  the  tenth  century  of 
our  era.  If  we  turn  to  the  great  classics  of 
antiquity  we  find  almost  an  equal  paucity  of  mate- 
rial from  the  earliest  times.  Of  Homer  there  is 
no  complete  copy  earlier  than  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  though  fragments  have  come 
down  from  the  sixth  centur}',  and  in  1891  a  frag- 
ment on  papyrus  was  found  in  Eg}'pt,  dating  as 
early  as  the  first  century  B.  c.  Of  Herodotus 
there  is  no  manuscript  earlier  than  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, and  of  the  fifteen  known  to  exist  the  major- 
ity are  later  than  the  fifteenth  century.  One 
Plato  is  dated  before  the  ninth  century,  and  a 
fragment  of  the  Phaedo  was  found  recently,  and 
one  of  the  lost  plays  of  Euripides,  "  The  Antiope,'^ 
which  were  written  not  later  than  the  third  cen- 
tury B.  c.     One  copy  of  "  Virgil  "  goes  back  to 

119 


I20  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

the  fourth  century  A.  D.,  and  a  fragment  of  Cicero 
to  the  same  period.  Such  is  the  general  state  of 
the  evidence  for  the  classics.  But  for  the  New 
Testament  we  have  two  splendid  manuscripts,  one 
of  them  complete,  of  the  fourth  century,  ten  of 
the  fifth,  twenty-four  of  the  sixth,  and  over  three 
thousand  in  all,^  though  in  this  number  are 
included  codices  that  are  mere  fragments. 
Besides  these  copies  of  the  text  itself  there  are 
many  other  important  witnesses  in  the  translations 
of  early  times,  and  also  in  the  quotations  and 
references  found  in  the  works  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian Fathers.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  we 
have  far  more  evidence  for  the  text  of  our  New 
Testament,  than  for  any  other  writings  of  antiq- 
uity whatsoever;  and  when  we  add  that  upon 
these  abundant  materials  have  been  concentrated 
for  the  last  hundred  years  the  efforts  of  men  of 
largest  learning  and  most  acute  critical  ability, 
we  may  feel  more  sure  of  our  accurate  knowledge 
of  what  the  original  documents  must  have  been, 
than  in  the  case  of  any  other  literary  productions 
of  ancient  times. 

These  great  documents  of  the  Christian  Faith 
have  come  to  us  from  many  places,  but  some 
localities  have  been  found  especially  rich  in  them. 
Alexandria  in  Egypt,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected from  its  history  as  one  of  the  earliest  cen- 

*  Scrivener's  "  Plain  Introduction  "  reckons  3,791.     See  Vol.  I.,  p.  8. 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    121 

ters  of  Christian  learning,  has  furnished  many 
manuscripts,  while  some  that  have  been  found 
elsewhere  are  the  product  of  Alexandrine  learning 
and  skill.  The  manuscripts  made  at  Constanti- 
nople, sometimes  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Byzantine  emperors,  were  famous  for  the  beauty 
of  their  text  and  the  regal  elegance  of  their 
illuminations.  Other  works  come  from  the 
islands  of  the  ^gean  Sea  and  from  Cyprus. 
Three  rocky  promontories  extend  southward  from 
the  coast  of  Macedonia,  and  the  most  eastern  one 
of  these,  or  ]\Iount  Athos,  is  especially  famous  as 
a  locality  producing  manuscripts  of  great  value  to 
the  Christian  world.  The  rocky  heights  of  this 
headland  were  the  site  of  more  than  twenty 
important  monasteries,  over  five  hundred  churches 
and  chapels,  and  multitudes  of  cells  of  anchorites. 
Even  now  the  monkish  population  is  very  numer- 
ous. Here  during  many  centuries  the  time  has 
been  passed  in  religious  occupations,  and  among 
these  none  has  been  so  important  as  the  produc- 
tion of  books.  Another  celebrated  group  of 
monasteries  is  in  Calabria,  the  most  southern 
province  of  Italy,  where  nearly  fifty  religious 
establishments  supplied  the  churches  and  libraries 
of  Rome  and  Naples,  Florence,  Venice,  and 
Milan.  Still  another  group  of  these  religious 
communities  is  in  the  Nitrian  Desert,  in  the  North 
of  Egypt,  whence  many  treasures  have  come  into 

L 


122  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF   THE   FAITH 

the  possession  of  European  scholars.  But  perhaps 
the  most  famous  of  all  localities  where  manu- 
scripts have  been  discovered,  is  the  Convent  of 
St.  Catherine/  at  Mount  Sinai,  the  scene  of  the 
romantic  finding  of  the  great  Sinaitic  manuscript 
by  Tischendorf,  which  we  have  yet  to  narrate  in 
full.  It  is  a  place  of  famed  sanctity,  dating  from 
a  very  early  period  in  the  Christian  era,  and  link- 
ing together  by  its  traditions  the  earliest  scenes 
of  Old  Testament  history  and  the  latest  acquisi- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  strange  providence  which  ordained  the 
giving  of  the  old  Law  from  this  awful  peak,  amid 
the  tumultuous  scenes  of  earthquake  and  fire,  and 
also  that  upon  this  very  spot  should  be  preserved 
through  the  peace  and  calm  of  ages  one  of  the 
two  oldest  copies  and  the  only  complete  uncial 
of  the  New  Covenant  which  Christendom  to-day 
possesses. 

Hardly  a  monastery  existed  which  did  not  have 
its  scriptorium^  or  writing  room,  attached  to  its 
library,  and  here  through  the  quiet  hours  the 
patient  toilers  wrought  at  their  task.  They  were 
not  so  strictly  bound  by  rules  for  copyists  as  were 
the  scribes  in  copying  the  Old  Testament,  accord- 
ing to  the  tract  Sopherim,  as  a  former  page  has 
narrated  ;  but  their  work  was  deemed  to  be  of  a 
sacred  character,  and  it  was  done  with  the  utmost 

Frontispiece. 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    1 23 

reverence.  Probably  even  in  the  apostolic  days 
the  copyists  were  men  who  had  had  their  train- 
ing in  the  Jewish  schools,  and  after  their  conver- 
sion to  Christianity  found  their  best  employment 
in  transcribing  the  epistles,  and  other  books 
meant  for  the  use  of  the  churches.  At  the  very 
first  there  was  probably  no  Christian  guild  of 
transcribers,  and  yet  we  know  that  few  of  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures  were  written  by  their 
authors  themselves.  Paul's  scribe  was  named 
Tertius  (Rom.  16  :  j^),  and  the  letter  to  the  ^^ 
Colossians,  as  well  as  some  other  epistles,  bears  a 
subscription  to  the  effect  that  Paul  wrote  that 
part  of  his  letter  with  his  own  hand.  To  the 
Galatians  Paul  says  :  '^  Ye  see  with  what  large 
letters  I  have  written  unto  you  with  my  own 
hand"  (Gal.  6  :  11),  thereby  calling  attention  to 
his  peculiar  chirography  as  a  mark  of  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  document,  and  showing,  as  Ellicott 
thinks,  that  in  this  epistle  an  exception  to  the 
general  rule  was  indicated,  the  whole  letter  having 
been  thus  the  autograph  of  the  apostle.  But  after 
a  little  time  this  work  of  the  copyist  grew  so 
important  that  a  particular  class  or  profession 
had  it  in  charge,  and  two  branches  of  the  calling 
arose,  the  tachygraphers  or  qinck  writers^  taking 
down  swiftly  the  dictation  of  the  author,  and  the 
kalligraphers^  or  fair-hand  writers^  writing  out 
more  slowly,  and  in  beautiful  text,  what  had  been 


124  'I'HE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

recorded  with  less  pains  at  first.  As  time  went 
on  the  work  of  these  scribes  was  largely  extended ; 
and  as  the  monasteries  and  other  religious  estab- 
lishments became  the  repositories  of  learning,  the 
classics  of  antiquity  as  well  as  ecclesiastical 
works  were  the  objects  of  care,  and  thus  Christi- 
anity preserved  for  the  world  also  the  great  liter- 
ary productions  of  the  ancient  heathen  times. 

The  office  of  transcriber  became  of  the  highest 
esteem.  It  was  not  thought  beneath  the  dignity 
of  the  highest  officials  of  the  church  to  devote 
themselves  to  making  elegant  copies  of  the  sacred 
books.  Special  privileges  were  granted  to  those 
whose  hands  must  be  kept  delicate  for  their  exact- 
ing task,  and  they  were  often  excused  from  the 
coarser  employments  of  hewing  wood,  drawing 
water,  or  planting  the  gardens  of  the  convents. 
It  is  pathetic  to  read  in  these  later  days  of  the 
pious  care  and  affection  with  which  the  work  was 
done  and  its  results  treasured,  and  no  one  can 
look  at  the  stained  and  tattered  pages  of  the  old- 
est manuscripts,  or  turn  the  later  leaves  of  dainty 
missals  and  splendidly  illuminated  Bibles,  without 
having  the  mental  picture  arise  before  him  of 
those  still  scriptoriums  in  which  each  task  was 
begun  with  a  prayer,  and  sometimes  the  Divine 
blessing  invoked  upon  every  stroke  of  the  pen 
and  brur^x.  As  we  proceed  to  describe  many  of 
these  manuscripts,  the  words  of  the  Friar  Pacificus 


^^ 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    1 25 

in  Ivongfellow's   "  Golden  Legend  "  will  recur  to 
the  mind  : 

It  is  growing  dark  !     Yet  one  line  more 
And  then  my  work  for  the  day  is  o'er. 
I  come  again  to  the  name  of  the  Lord  ! 
Ere  I  that  awful  name  record 
That  is  spoken  so  lightly  among  men, 
Let  me  pause  awhile  and  wash  my  pen ; 
Pure  from  blemish  and  blot  must  it  be 
When  it  writes  that  word  of  mystery ! 

Thus  have  I  labored  on  and  on 

Nearly  through  the  Gospel  of  John. 

Can  it  be  that  from  the  lips 

Of  this  same  gentle  evangelist, 

That  Christ  himself  perhaps  has  kissed, 

Came  the  dread  Apocalypse  ! 

It  has  a  very  awful  look 

As  it  stands  there  at  the  end  of  the  book 

Like  the  sun  in  an  eclipse. 

Ah  me  !  when  I  think  of  that  vision  divine, 

Think  of  writing  it,  line  by  line, 

I  stand  in  awe  of  the  terrible  curse 

Like  the  trump  of  doom  in  the  closing  verse 

God  forgive  me,  if  ever  I 

Take  aught  from  the  book  of  that  prophecy, 

Lest  my  part  too  should  be  taken  away 

From  the  book  of  Life  on  the  Judgment  Day, 


There,  now,  is  an  initial  letter  ! 
Saint  Ulric  himself  never  made  a  better  ! 
Finished  down  to  the  leaf  and  the  snail, 
Down  to  the  eyes  on  the  peacock's  tail ! 
And  now  as  I  turn  the  volume  over,  ^ ' 

And  see  what  lies  between  cover  and  cover, 


126  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

What  treasures  of  art  these  pages  hold, 

All  ablaze  with  crimson  and  gold, 

God  forgive  me  !     I  seem  to  feel 

A  certain  satisfaction  steal 

Into  my  heart  and  into  my  brain, 

As  if  my  talent  had  not  lain 

Wrapped  in  a  napkin  and  all  in  vain. 

Yes,  I  might  almost  say  to  the  Lord, 

Here  is  a  copy  of  thy  word 

Written  out  with  much  toil  and  pain ; 

Take  it,  O  Lord,  and  let  it  be 

As  something  I  have  done  for  thee. 

Sometimes  the  completion  of  the  book  would 
be  followed  by  the  signature  of  the  copyist,  and  a 
sentence  or  two  descriptive  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  he  wrote.  Apparently  they  were  not 
all  gentle  spirits  who  thus  toiled  patiently  or 
impatiently  in  the  cloisters,  for  some  anathema 
like  the  following  is  often  found  :  ' '  Whosoever 
removeth  this  volume  from  this  same  mentioned 
convent,  may  the  anger  of  the  lyord  overtake  him 
in  this  world  and  in  the  next,  to  all  eternity. 
Amen."  Or  in  another  case:  "  He  who  shall 
have  stolen  or  sold  this  book,  or  in  any  manner 
withdrawn  it  from  its  place,  or  he  who  shall  have 
been  its  buyer,  may  he  be  forever  in  the  company 
of  Judas,  Pilate,  and  Caiaphas.  Amen,  amen. 
Fiat^fiaty  Another  subscription  shows  the  gen- 
tler feeling  of  the  transcriber :  "  This  book 
belongs  to  Daniel,  a  secular  presbyter  and  visitor 
of  the  province  of  Aniida,   who  gave  diligence 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT     12; 

and  procured  it  for  the  benefit  of  himself,  and  of 
those  who,  possessed  with  the  same  object  of  love 
of  divine  instruction,  may  approach  it,  and  desire 
to  profit  their  lives  by  the  truth  that  is  in  it. 
But  the  poor  Simeon,  presbyter  and  a  recluse, 
who  is  in  the  holy  convent  of  my  Lord,  Symeon 
of  Cartanim,  transcribed  it.  May  every  one 
therefore  who  asks  for  it,  that  he  may  read  in  it 
or  write  from  it,  for  the  sake  of  the  love  of  God, 
pray  for  him  who  gave  diligence  and  obtained  it, 
and  for  the  scribe,  that  he  may  find  mercy  in  the 
day  of  judgment,  like  the  thief  who  was  on  the 
right  hand  (of  the  cross),  through  the  prayers  of 
all  the  saints,  and  more  particularly  of  the  holy 
and  glorious  and  perpetual  Virgin,  the  mother  of 
God,  Mary.  Amen,  and  amen  and  amen."  The 
celebrated  Curetonian  Gospels  in  Syriac  close 
with  a  prayer,  "  Son  of  the  Living  God,  at  the 
hour  of  thy  judgment  spare  the  sinner  who  wrote 
this!"  Another  manuscript  must  have  been 
transcribed  with  unusual  difficulty,  owing  to  the 
defect  of  the  copyist,  for  he  signs  himself  "  the 
one-eyed  Cyprian."  Still  another  document, 
quoted  by  Scrivener,  bears  the  couplet  in  Greek, 
of  which  the  following  is  an  equivalent : 

The  hand  that  wrote  now  moulders  in  the  tomb  ; 
The  book  shall  bide  until  the  day  of  doom. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  labor  of  thus  pro- 
ducine  books  in  the  ancient  times.     Our  giant 


128         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

presses  turn  oflf  thousands  of  pages  from  stereo- 
typed plates  in  a  brief  time  and  with  perfect 
accuracy  ;  but  if  the  reader  will  try  the  simplest 
experiment  he  will  see  how  tedious  was  the  copy- 
ist's task  and  how  surely  it  must  have  been 
marked  with  errors,  which  no  care  could  wholly 
prevent.  Try  to  reproduce  one  page  of  print, 
writing  with  pen  and  ink  in  capital  letters  the 
text  before  the  eye.  It  will  be  found  a  wonder 
that  the  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament  are 
so  free  from  blemish  as  they  are.  A  man  might 
have  the  most  scrupulous  conscience  about  his 
work  and  be  most  skilled  in  its  performance,  but 
he  would  be  a  man  for  all  that,  and  liable  to  the 
infirmities  of  the  flesh.  Weariness,  inattention, 
interruption  would  be  sure  to  come  even  to  the 
most  faithful,  and  so  we  find  wrong  words  written, 
sentences  omitted  or  repeated,  and  many  instances 
of  errors  that  bear  all  the  marks  of  mere  inad- 
vertence ;  while  in  some  cases  the  mistake  cannot 
be  laid  to  inadvertence,  but  was  plainly  due  to 
the  purpose  of  the  copyist  to  support  some  party 
doctrine,  or  elucidate  some  passage  that  the  apos- 
tolic writer  had  thought  plain  enough.  The 
latter  case  finds  an  instance  in  the  famous  passage 
concerning  the  Three  Witnesses  (i  John  5  :  7,  8), 
where  the  words,  *'  in  heaven^  the  Father^  the 
Word^  and  the  Holy  Ghost :  and  these  three  are 
one.     And  there  are  three  that  bear  witness  in 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    1 29 

earth^^^  are  to  be  omitted,  having  been  supplied 
for  controversial  purposes  ;  while  an  example  of 
inadvertence  is  found  in  the  Revelation  (10  :  10), 
where  the  copyist  omitted  a  passage  in  the  cele- 
brated Codex  of  Ephraem,  though  the  omission 
does  not  appear  in  our  English  Bibles.  If,  how- 
ever, we  had  had  no  manuscript  save  the  Codex 
of  Ephraem  from  which  to  translate,  that  passage 
would  have  been  sadly  mixed  in  our  version,  for 
after  a  part  of  the  tenth  verse  the  copyist  sud- 
denly changed  to  the  last  verse  of  chapter  seven, 
whence  the  text  runs  smoothly  on  to  the  end  of 
the  fourth  verse  of  the  eighth  chapter,  when  there 
is  again  a  transition  to  the  middle  of  the  third 
verse  of  the  eleventh  chapter,  making  the  passage 
read  : 

' '  And  it  was  in  my  mouth  sweet  as  honey,  and 
as  soon  tears  from  their  eyes.  And  when  he 
opened  the  seventh  seal  there  followed  a  silence  in 
heaven  about  the  space  of  half  an  hour.  And  I 
saw  the  seven  angels  which  stand  before  God  ;  and 
there  were  given  unto  them  seven  trumpets.  And 
another  angel  came  and  stood  over  the  altar,  hav- 
ing a  golden  censer ;  and  there  was  given  unto 
him  much  incense,  that  he  should  add  it  unto  the 
prayers  of  all  the  saints  upon  the  golden  altar 
which  was  before  the  throne.  And  the  smoke  of 
the  incense,  with  the  prayers  of  the  saints  went 
up  before  God  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  three- 


130         THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

score  days,  clothed  in  sackcloth."  What  was  the. 
matter  with  this  copyist  we  cannot  say.  The  pas- 
sage reminds  us  of  a  similar  inadvertence,  where 
a  repetition  instead  of  an  omission  occurs,  in  the 
Old  Testament  (i  Chron.  8  and  9).  There  the  eye 
of  the  copyist  noted  the  words,  '*  these  dwelt  at 
Jerusalem,"  in  chapter  nine,  verse  thirty-four, 
when  he  ceased  working  perhaps  at  evening  and 
fixed  it  in  his  mind  where  to  begin  the  next  morn- 
ing. But  when  he  returned  to  his  task  his  eye 
caught  the  words,  "  these  dwelt  at  Jerusalem,"  in 
verse  twenty-eight  of  chapter  eight,  and  he  began 
with  verse  twenty-nine  and  calmly  went  on  with 
the  dry  list  of  names  which  he  had  copied  the 
day  before,  until  he  came  to  his  senses  at  verse 
thirty-eight,  when  he  found  his  proper  place  and 
began  the  tenth  chapter ;  all  of  which  appears  in 
the  English  version. 

Although  the  autographs  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures  were  doubtless  all  in  the  form  of  rolls, 
the  only  manuscripts  that  are  extant  are  in  the 
form  of  books.  We  know  from  a  word  of  the 
Latin  poet.  Martial,  that  until  the  latter  half  of 
the  first  century  the  old  custom  of  writing  in  rolls 
was  prevalent  everywhere,  and  that  in  MartiaPs 
time  the  later,  or  book  form,  was  just  beginning 
to  be  used,  but  was  regarded  as  a  great  novelty. 

It  is  evident  from  the  labor  and  care  bestowed 
on  the  production  of  books,  that  they  were  valued 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMKNT  TKXT    131 

most  highly.  In  the  monasteries  the  monks  were 
not  suffered  to  remove  the  volumes  from  the  libra- 
ries to  their  cells  except  at  certain  seasons,  as  dur- 
ing Lent.  Sometimes  it  was  prescribed  that  the 
book  should  be  wrapped  in  a  handkerchief  or 
cloth  when  not  in  use,  and  it  is  perhaps  such  an 
instance  that  received  illustration  when  Tischen- 
dorf  discovered  the  great  Sinaitic  Codex,  which 
a  monk  had  in  his  cell  wrapped  in  a  red  cloth 
when  Tischendorf  first  saw  it.  But  if  these 
books  were  deemed  precious  by  those  who  made 
them,  or  in  those  early  days  used  them,  their 
value  has  grown  immensely  as  time  has  passed, 
and  the  science  of  textual  criticism  has  shown 
how  indispensable  they  are  for  our  knowledge  of 
the  Bible.  Large  prices  have  been  paid  for  them. 
Imperial  gifts  to  the  Convent  of  St.  Catharine 
purchased  the  Sinaitic  Codex  for  the  library  in  St. 
Petersburg ;  and  although  many  manuscripts  have 
been  gotten  by  way  of  gifts,  or  at  small  prices, 
from  owners  who  did  not  understand  their  real 
value,  it  would  now  require  more  than  imperial 
gifts  to  win  them  away  from  their  European  posses- 
sors. They  are  the  proudest  treasures  of  national 
museums  and  university  libraries  and  private  pa- 
trons of  learning. 

Naturally  the  great  value  attached  to  these 
documents  has  stimulated  the  desire  for  gain  la- 
tent in  the  human  breast,  and  many  persons  un- 


13a  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

worthy  to  be  engaged  in  such  a  work  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  business  of  securing  such  docu- 
ments and  ofifering  them  for  sale.  Nor  have  all 
such  efforts  been  of  an  honorable  character. 
Frauds  have  been  attempted,  which  have  come  to 
be  of  recognized  value  themselves  as  going  far  to 
establish  our  confidence  in  the  infallible  judgment 
of  the  great  librarians  and  scholars  upon  whom 
the  attempt  to  deceive  has  been  made,  for  no  such 
effort  has  yet  been  successful  in  any  important 
instance.  No  bolder  attempts  in  this  direction 
have  been  made  than  those  which  rendered  the 
name  of  Constantine  Simonides  infamous,  espe- 
cially in  connection  with  the  Sinaitic  manuscript. 
This  man,  in  1856,  sought  to  palm  off  upon  the 
Academy  of  Berlin  a  manuscript  purporting  to 
be  the  ^'History  of  Egypt,"  by  Uranios,  son  of 
Anaximenes.  As  a  work  of  the  kalligraphic  art 
it  was  perfect ;  but  the  careful  study  of  the  subject 
matter  revealed  its  false  character.  The  work 
was  bought  for  twenty-five  hundred  thalers,  how- 
ever, before  the  deceit  was  discovered,  and  a  few 
leaves  of  the  very  important  document,  the 
"Shepherd  of  Hennas,"  were  also  purchased. 
Then  came  a  message  from  Professor  I^ykurgos, 
of  Athens,  that  probably  both  the  manuscripts 
were  spurious,  and  Professor  Tischendorf  at  once 
gave  them  critical  examination  and  pronounced 
them  false.     Simonides  next  appeared  at  the  Bod- 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    1 33 

leian  Ivibrary  in  Oxford,  England,  and  produced 
two  or  three  genuine  manuscripts  of  no  very  great 
value,  and  belonging  to  the  tenth,  twelfth,   and 
thirteenth    centuries.      He    then    unrolled   with 
much  apparent  anxiety  a  few  fragments  of  vel- 
lum, which  bore  an  uncial  text  of  most  venerable 
appearance.      The   librarian   carefully   inspected 
the   crumbling   leaves  of  vellum,  then  S7iielt  of 
them,  and  gave  them  back  with  the  single  re- 
mark   that   they  dated  fro7n    the   middle  of  the 
7iineteenth  ce7iticry  I   The  baffled  Simonides  gath- 
ered up  his  wares  with  many  protestations,  and 
departed,  going  straight  to  the  railway  station, 
whence  he  sped  to  the  house  of  a  well-known 
country  gentlemen  in  Worcestershire,  where  he 
disposed  of  the  whole  lot  at  a  satisfactory  price. 
The  most  extraordinary  performance  of  this  Si- 
monides was  doubtless  prompted  by  a  spirit  of  re- 
venge.   It  has  been  said  that  Tischendorf  had  been 
the  means  of  detecting  the  fraud  perpetrated  in 
Berlin,  and  some  other  incidents  had  also  brought 
him  into  collision  with  Simonides.      No  sooner 
had  Tischendorf  published  his  earliest  fac  similes 
of  the  newly  discovered  "Codex  Sinaiticus,"  in 
i860,  than  Simonides  declared  that  Tischendorf 
himself  was  at  last  deceived;  that  he,  Simonides, 
had  written  the  whole  document  I     He  appealed 
to  his  wonderful  skill  as  a  kalligrapher  and  said 
that  while  he  was  still  a  youth  he  had  been  em- 


134  ^^^   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

ployed  by  his  uncle,  Benedict,  head  of  the  monas- 
tery of  Panteleemon  on  Mount  Athos,  to  make  in 
manuscript  /rom  a  printed  Moscow  Bible^  a  copy 
of  the  whole  Scriptures,  which  might  be  worthy 
of  presentation  to  the  Russian  Emperor  Nicholas, 
in  acknowledgment  of  benefits  conferred  upon  the 
monastery.  He  had  gone  through  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments,  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  and  a 
part  of  the  ''Shepherd  of  Hermas,"  when  his 
uncle  died,  his  materials  failed,  and  the  plan  to 
add  the  whole  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers  had  to  be 
relinquished.  The  volume  was  presented  by  him 
later  to  Constantine,  formerly  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople and  Archbishop  of  Sinai,  who  had 
recognized  the  favor  by  giving  him  twenty-five 
thousand  piastres,  or  not  far  from  one  thousand 
two  hundred  dollars.  The  book  had  been  given 
by  the  patriarch  to  the  Convent  of  St.  Catharine, 
where  Simonides  had  seen  it  in  1844,  and  again 
in  1852,  and  where  Tischendorf  discovered  it  in 
1859.  -^t  ^^^  ^  marvelous  story,  requiring  the 
most  colossal  impudence,  and  yet  so  cunningly 
planned,  so  boldly  supported,  with  the  manual 
skill  of  its  author  so  well  known,  that  for  a 
time  it  found  credit  in  some  quarters.  But  its 
refutation  was  easy.  The  monks  at  Sinai,  includ- 
ing the  librarian  who  was  in  charge  at  the  time 
covered  by  the  story,  gave  testimony  that  they 
had  never  seen  Simonides,  and  that  the  book  had 


MATERIALS  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    1 35 

been  catalogued  from  the  earliest  times.  Accord- 
ing to  Simonides  himself,  he  could  not  have  been 
more  than  fifteen  years  old  in  1839,  when  he  be- 
gan the  task,  and  it  was  shown  that  to  have  fin- 
ished it  at  the  time  designated  he  must  have 
written  at  least  twenty  thousand  large  and  separate 
uncial  letters  every  day,  which  was  simply  incred- 
ible. Moreover,  the  very  mistakes  of  the  codex 
show  that  it  must  have  been  copied  from  another 
manuscript,  and  not  from  a  printed  Bible,  as  for 
instance  where  omitted  words  are  in  several  cases 
just  enough  to  fill  up  a  line  in  an  old  papyrus 
document,  showing  that  the  copyist  had  a  roll  or 
book  like  his  own  lying  before  him.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  pursue  the  subject  farther,  except  to 
say  that  the  manuscript  was  easily  and  entirely 
vindicated  from  such  imputations.  Simonides 
was  reported  to  have  perished  of  leprosy  in  1867  ; 
but  two  years  later  he  was  seen  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, where  he  was  still  active  under  an  assumed 
name. 

Still  another  attempt  at  fraud  is  yet  fresh  in  the 
memory.  In  1881,  a  dealer  named  Shapira,  who 
had  been  of  real  service  in  securing  valuable 
documents  in  the  Bast,  brought  to  Europe  several 
manuscripts,  among  them  a  Moabite  copy  of  the 
book  of  Deuteronomy,  which  was  apparently 
genuine,  bearing  every  mark  of  age  and  truthful- 
ness.    Several  weeks  elapsed,  during  which  the 


136         THE   PARCHMKNTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

news  spread  over  Europe  and  America,  and  the 
learned  and  religious  public  was  thrown  into  great 
excitement,  for,  if  genuine,  the  manuscript  was 
beyond  question  the  oldest  in  existence  containing 
a  biblical  text.  But  after  careful  examination  it 
was  decided  that  the  document  did  not  belong  to 
800  B.  c,  but  to  a  date  as  late  as  1880  A.  D.  In 
the  following  week  Sbapira  committed  suicide. 
In  all  probability  he  had  been  deceived  himself, 
was  of  honorable  intention,  and  could  not  sustain 
the  odium  which  he  felt -would  be  his  in  view  of 
his  connection  with  the  fraud.  The  words  of 
Scrivener  are  doubtless  true  :  "  With  respect  to 
biblical  manuscripts  we  may  confidently  assert 
that  there  are  fifty  persons  at  least  in  England 
who,  on  internal  grounds  alone,  from  their  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  what  a  genuine  record  ought 
to  and  must  contain,  would  at  once  detect  with 
perfect  ease  any — the  most  highly  finished — imi- 
tation that  dishonest  skill  could  execute,  provided 
the  document  extended  beyond  the  length  of  a 
very  few  lines."  ^  Probably  at  this  day  the  num- 
ber of  scholars  in  England  thus  competent  is 
greater  than  when  these  words  were  written,  while 
America  is  not  now  without  many  persons  who 
would  be  equally  discerning.  The  ancient  docu- 
ments cannot  be  successfully  simulated,  and  even 
if  they  could,  our  genuine  materials  are  so  rich 

1 "  Six  Lectures,"  p.  22. 


MATHRIAI^  FOR  NEW  TESTAMENT  TEXT    1 37 

and  so  fully  known,  that  the  imposture  would  do 
little  harm. 

The  invention  of  printing  in  1452  may  be  con- 
sidered as  the  close  of  the  period  of  the  production 
of  manuscripts,  though  some  books  in  the  ancient 
form  were  made  after  that  date.  In  1455,  the  first 
printed  Bible  appeared  in  Latin,  from  the  press  of 
Gutenberg,  in  three  folio  volumes,  with  two 
columns  of  thirty-six  lines  each  to  a  page.  The 
text  imitated  that  of  the  earlier  manuscripts,  and 
was  printed  on  vellum  and  illuminated  by  hand. 
The  rapid  multiplication  of  books  by  Gutenberg, 
and  by  his  former  associates  Faust  and  Schoeffer, 
their  exact  uniformity  and  low  price  excited  the 
greatest  wonder,  and  led  to  the  belief  that  there 
was  some  magic  in  the  case,  so  that  the  printers 
escaped  the  penalty  of  being  in  league  with  the 
devil  only  by  revealing  the  processes  of  their  art. 
Thus  the  secrets  of  the  new  invention  were  ex- 
posed, and  a  new  era  in  the  production  of  books 
was  introduced.  The  work  of  the  transcriber  and 
illuminator  did  not  pass  away  at  once.  Many 
manuscripts  were  still  made,  and  many  printed 
volumes  were  splendidly  adorned  by  the  work  of 
the  hand,  but  gradually  the  supremacy  of  the  new 
art  asserted  itself,  and  the  modern  period  of  book- 
making  was  established. 


IX 

CLASSES  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MANUSCRIPTS. 

npiIB  manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament  thus 
J-      far  found  are  divided  into  classes,  and  dis- 
tinguished  by  certain  marks  whereby  they  are 
known  to  all  scholars. 

Two  great  divisions  are  made  according  to  the 
form  of  the  characters  employed,  and  are  called 
Uncials  (inch),  and  Cursives  or  Minuscules,  the 
former  being  written  in  large  capital  letters 
throughout,  and  the  latter  in  a  small,  running,  or 
cursive  hand. 

The  uncials  are  about  one  hundred  and  ten  in 
number,  and  none  of  them  were  written  later  than 
the  tenth  century  ;  of  the  cursives,  however, 
there  is  a  large  number,  and  none  were  written 
earlier  than  the  ninth  century.  So  that  the  char- 
acter of  the  manuscript  in  this  respect  at  once 
determines  the  period  of  its  writing,  though  there 
is  wide  opportunity  for  judgment  in  deciding  its 
place  in  that  period. 

Uncial  manuscripts  generally  have  no  breaks 

between  their   words,  few  of  the  letters  trespass 

upon  the  margins  of  the  page,  and  words  are  often 

arbitrarily  divided  at  the  ends  of  lines.     A  cor- 

138 


CLASSES  AND   CHARACTERISTICS  1 39 

responding  example  in  English  may  easily  be 
given,  and  if  it  is  remembered  that  four  of  these 
columns,  or  three,  would  usually  appear  on  a  page, 
as  in  the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican  codices  respectively, 
the  appearance  of  a  page  of  uncial  writing  may 
be  easily  conceived  ;  the  example  is  from  the 
second  Gospel  at  the  beginning  as  it  appears  in 
the  Vatican  manuscript. 

BEGINNINGOFTHEGOSPBLO 

FJSCHTSONOFGDASITWASW 

RITTENINTHEPROPHETISAI 

AHBEHOLDISENDMYMESSE 

NGERBEFORETHYFACEWH 

OSHALLPREPARETHYWAYT 

HEVOICEOFONECRYINGINT 

HEDESERTPREPAREYETH 

EWAY 

Gradually  attempts  at  ornamentation  appear,  at 
first  an  enlargement  of  initials,  and  ornamented 
head-pieces  and  tail-pieces  at  the  beginning  and 
end  of  books.  Occasional  breaks  in  the  text  were 
introduced  ;  punctuation,  very  rare  at  first,  became 
more  frequent ;  and  other  attempts  to  facilitate  the 
reading  were  made.  The  tendency  to  write  more 
rapidly  resulted  in  the  cursive  style,  with  the 
employment  of  small  letters,  but  these  on  account 
of  their  later  date  and  more  rapid  production  are 
of  less  value,  generally  speaking,  than  the  uncials. 


140  THK  PARCHMENTS  OF   THE   FAITH 

Many  manuscripts  of  both  classes  are  of  the  great- 
est elegance.  It  was  not  infrequently  the  fancy 
to  dye  the  delicate  vellum  a  rich  red  or  purple, 
and  then  to  write  the  text  in  silver  or  colored 
inks,  and  the  so-called  purple  manuscripts  are 
sumptuous  folios,  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Codex  Rossanensis,  illustrated  with  full-page 
sketches  of  scenes  from  the  Gosj)els. 

Many  manuscripts,  some  of  which  are  of  much 
importance  for  criticism,  were  prepared  for  service 
books,  and  contained  only  a  part  of  the  Script- 
ures, especially  such  passages  as  were  appointed 
to  be  read  upon  certain  days,  so  that  they  appear 
without  regard  to  their  proper  order  in  the  New 
Testament.  These  are  Lectionaries,  so-called, 
both  uncial  and  cursive  ;  and  they  were  Evmigel- 
istaria^  if  they  contained  the  lessons  from  the 
Gospels,  or  Praxapostoloi^  if  they  contained  the 
readings  from  the  Acts  and  epistles.  The  former 
are  about  three  times  more  numerous  than  the 
latter. 

Sometimes  entire  copies  of  the  New  Testament 
were  made  by  bringing  together  different  manu- 
scripts of  various  parts,  made  perhaps  by  various 
hands,  and  at  widely  separated  times  and  places. 
The  fact  therefore  that  a  copy  is  entire  does  not 
necessarily  show  that  the  text  of  all  its  parts  is  of 
equal  age  and  value.  One  part  may  have  been 
made  most  accurately  from  an  excellent  prototype. 


CLASSES  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  14I 

while  another  part  may  have  been  carelessly  writ- 
ten from  a  poor  copy.  But  these  characteristics 
easily  explain  themselves,  and  the  critical  scholar 
has  little  difficulty  in  assigning  its  true  origin  and 
value  to  each  part  of  the  document. 

The  mode  of  writing,  which  left  no  spaces 
between  the  words  and  sentences  and  had  no 
punctuation  to  aid  the  reader,  was  found  at  a  very 
early  period  to  be  unnecessarily  difficult.  The 
oldest  attempt  at  divisions  in  the  text  is  that 
which  appears  in  the  Vatican  manuscript,  and 
the  breaks  occur  irregularly  and  where  there  is 
some  break  in  the  sense  of  the  passage.  Hardly 
less  ancient,  and  possibly  to  be  ascribed  to  so 
early  a  writer  as  Tatian  the  harmonist,  whose 
'''' Diatessaron''^  has  recently  been  discovered,  is 
the  division  of  the  Gospels  into  larger  chapters 
or  titles  {rirXoi)^  so  called  because  appended  to  the 
numeral  of  its  designation  is  a  title  or  summary  of 
contents,  generally  in  a  table  preceding  each  Gos- 
pel, or  at  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  pages,  or  even 
in  both  ways  in  the  same  manuscript.  A  reference 
to  the  illustration  facing  page  138  will  show  the 
''  titles "  preceding  the  Gospel  of  Mark  in  the 
Alexandrine  manuscript.  In  the  same  illustration 
appear  the  marginal  rubrics  designating  the  Am- 
monian-Eusebian  sections,  yet  another  method 
of  dividing  the  text,  but  employed  for  the  entirely 
different  purpose  of  indicating  parallel  passages 


142  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

in  the  other  Gospels,  just  as  the  marginal  refer- 
ences in  our  English  Bibles  are  used.  Ammonius 
of  Alexandria,  about  A.  D.  220,  originally  adopted 
this  method  of  harmonizing  the  Gospels,  and  the 
plan  was  afterward  followed  by  Busebius.  Am- 
monius selected  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  as  his 
standard,  and  in  that  Gospel  three  hundred  and 
fifty-five  sections  are  marked,  two  hundred  and 
thirty-six  in  Mark,  three  hundred  and  forty-two 
in  Ivuke,  and  two  hundred  and  thirty-two  in  John. 
The  sections  were  designated  by  letters  of  the 
Greek  alphabet  having  a  fixed  numerical  equiva- 
lent. To  complete  the  arrangement,  ten  canons 
or  lists  were  made,  to  which  another  letter  placed 
under  the  designation  of  the  section  referred.  In 
these  canons  all  the  parallel  passages  were  classi- 
fied, the  first  canon  containing  those  common  to 
all  four  Gospels  *,  the  second,  places  in  which  the 
first  three  agree  ;  the  third,  passages  in  Matthew, 
Luke,  and  John  ;  the  fourth,  those  in  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  John  ;  the  fifth  to  the  ninth,  contain- 
ing those  common  to  any  two,  and  the  tenth  con- 
taining those  found  only  in  one.  The  margin  of 
a  manuscript  would  then  have  the  Greek  letters 
of  its  section  opposite  a  given  passage,  and  be- 
neath these  the  letter  signifying  the  proper  canon  ; 
the  first,  if  the  passage  occurred  in  all  four  Gos- 
pels ;  the  second,  if  found  in  a  particular  two,  and 
so  on.      For   example,   the   illustration  used  by 


CLASSES  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  1 43 

Scrivener  in  his  "  Plain  Introduction  "  is  from  the 
Cotton  fragment  of  the  Gospels,  where  in  the 
margin  of  John  15  :  20,  we  find  the  Greek  letters 
thus  arranged :  ^'^®.  This  means  that  this  section 
of  John  is  one  hundred  thirty-nine,  the  numeri- 
cal equivalent  of  the  upper  letters,  while  the 
lower  letter  stands  for  three,  the  third  canon. 
Referring  to  that  canon  we  find  the  reference  to 
this  section  of  John,  and  joined  with  it  are  the 
signs  which  show  that  John  15  :  20  is  parallel  to 
Matthew  10  :  24  and  Luke  6  :  40.  These  mar- 
ginal references  were  generally  written  in  Ver- 
million as  prescribed  by  Eusebius,  though  blue  or 
green  is  occasionally  found.  The  great  advan- 
tage of  such  a  system  of  notation  is  evident.  Still 
another  peculiarity  was  introduced  by  Buthalius, 
a  deacon  of  Alexandria,  who  published  the  epis- 
tles of  Paul  in  A.  D.  458,  and  afterward  the  Acts 
and  general  epistles.  Besides  several  other  de- 
vices, he  marked  every  fiftieth  line  by  its  appro- 
priate number,  and  these  were  called  stichoi 
(flT£/o£)^  and  not  only  aided  the  reader,  but  became 
a  means  of  reckoning  the  amount  of  work  done 
by  the  copyist,  just  as  the  eyns  of  a  modern  printer 
are  reckoned.  The  same  term  stichoi  was  applied 
later  to  another  division  of  the  text  called  comma 
or  colo7i^  which  formed  a  clause  according  to  the 
sense,  very  much  as  the  modern  verses  are  em- 
ployed.    But  this  broke  up  the  text,  occasioned 


144  'J'HE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

many  spaces,  and  was  too  cumbersome  to  be  uni- 
versally adopted.  Various  other  methods  of  divi- 
sion and  notation  were  used,  but  need  not  be 
enumerated  here.  It  should  only  be  added  that 
none  of  these  ancient  divisions  appear  in  our 
modern  Bibles.  The  present  chapters  were  prob- 
ably introduced  by  Stephen  Langton  in  1228  in 
the  I^atin  Vulgate,  whence  they  were  transferred 
to  the  printed  Greek  editions  and  so  into  the 
English  version,  while  the  verses  were  set  ojQf  by 
Robert  Stephen,  while  journeying  from  Paris  to 
Geneva,  for  his  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament 
published  in  the  year  1551.* 

It  will  be  evident  that  the  age  of  any  document 
may  be  approximately  determined  by  the  presence 
or  absence  of  these  peculiarities,  as  well  as  by 
many  other  signs.  It  has  already  been  said  that 
the  simple  division  into  the  uncials  and  cursives 
indicates  two  nearly  distinct  periods.  Similarly, 
no  codex  which  has  the  Eusebian  canons  can  be 
older  than  his  time.  Sticho^netry  would  shov/ 
that  the  document  possessing  it  was  written  later 
than  458,  the  year  when  Euthalius  introduced  the 
system  in  his  edition  of  St.  Paul's  epistles.  The 
mere  materials  of  which  a  manuscript  consists 
bear  their  witness  to  its  age  and  the  simplicity  of 
the  text  indicates  a  proportionally  early  time.     If 

^  See  an  exhaustive  paper  in  "  Critical   Essays,"  by  Ezra  Abbot, 
p.  464. 


^„r-^-^- 


a 

■•"/.•5' 


Ji:<?<^K«u&    X^^t•;A>^^v1ci>«>Me'IlAo/M2_•>.     ,       ^     --»    ^     __ 


CODEX  Ephraemi,  C. 

(A  Palimpsest.    1  Tim.  3  :  9-4  :  14.) 

Page  145. 


CLASSES   AND   CHARACTERISTICS  145 

there  are  several  columns  on  a  page  after  the 
manner  employed  in  the  earlier  papyrus  rolls  the 
manuscript  may  be  adjudged  to  a  period  pretty 
near  to  that  of  the  rolls  themselves.  Slight  pecu- 
liarities in  the  letters  and  the  use  of  additional 
marks  that  would  quite  escape  the  attention  of  an 
ordinary  reader  are  enough  to  betray  valuable 
secrets  to  the  skilled  eye,  and  by  such  means  addi- 
tions to  the  original  page  by  second,  third,  fourth, 
and  even  more  scribes  are  detected. 

An  extremely  important  class  of  manuscripts  is 
found  in  the  palimpsests,  or  documents  that  have 
been  twice  written.  As  time  elapsed,  and  the 
supplies  of  vellum  became  scarce  and  dear  while 
perhaps  the  reverence  for  the  text  of  the  Bible 
somewhat  decreased,  it  was  not  unusual  to  erase 
as  far  as  possible  the  first  writing  upon  the  vellum 
sheets  and  then  to  cover  the  page  again  with  a 
later  work,  as  appears  in  the  case  of  the  most 
famous  palimpsest,  C,  where  the  ancient  biblical 
text  was  erased  and  covered  with  the  sermons  of 
Ephraem  Syrus.  The  vegetable  ink  used  in  the 
early  times  could  be  nearly  obliterated — the  word 
'palim-ps&stinea.ns  nodded  away  a^-azn — and  the  new 
text  stood  out  nearly  as  distinct  as  if  the  vellum 
had  not  been  previously  used.  But  in  process  of 
time  the  action  of  the  atmosphere  brought  out 
the  older  text  again  with  more  or  less  clearness, 
and  so  the  vellum  bore  two  texts,  the  one  written 


146         THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

over  the  other  and  both  to  be  deciphered  only 
with  difficulty.  Sometimes  even  a  triple  writing 
is  found.  Where  the  ancient  writing  remained 
unusually  obscure  scholars  have  often  attempted, 
usually  with  success,  to  restore  it  by  the  use  of 
chemicals,  and  thus  important  aids  to  criticism 
have  been  secured.  The  palimpsests  extant  are 
comparatively  few,  but  of  great  value.  It  almost 
seems  as  if  the  reappearance  of  their  ancient  texts 
was  the  mute  protest  of  the  vellum  and  ink  against 
the  blotting  out  of  the  sacred  truths  that  they 
once  declared;  the  eloquent  though  mute  assertion 
that  the  word  of  God  shall  outlast  every  other. 
But  that  a  multitude  of  precious  documents 
have  thus  been  lost  is  beyond  doubt,  for  the  prac- 
tice by  the  end  of  the  seventh  century  had  be- 
come so  destructive  to  valuable  literary  works  of 
all  kinds,  that  a  synod  issued  a  decree  forbidding 
the  obliteration  of  biblical  writings. 

Of  the  uncial  manuscripts  a  hundred  and  ten 
are  known  already,  and  the  number  is  likely  to 
increase  with  new  discoveries  in  a  time  when 
archaeological  research  in  all  departments  is  press- 
ing. We  do  not  attempt  to  give  a  list  of  them 
here,  as  such  a  list  would  be  of  use  only  to  schol- 
ars, who  will  readily  find  such  material  for  their 
need.  We  may  refer  however  to  Scrivener's 
*'  Plain  Introduction,"  fourth  edition  ;  to  Mitchell's 
"  Critical  Handbook,"  for  much  valuable  material, 


CLASSES   AND   CHARACTERISTICS  147 

though  the  lists  of  documents  must  be  revised  ; 
and  to  the  excellent  little  book  upon  the  "  Textual 
Criticism  of  the  New  Testament,"  by  Prof.  B.  B. 
Warfield,  d.  d.  Of  these  uncial  manuscripts 
sixty-eight  have  the  Gospels  or  parts  of  them  ; 
sixteen  have  the  Acts  and  general  epistles  ;  twenty- 
one  contain  the  epistles  of  Paul  ;  five  have  the 
Apocalypse.  These  are  all  indicated  by  the  use 
of  capital  letters,  as  the  Hebrew  J<  for  the  Sinaitic 
manuscript,  B  for  the  Vatican  Codex  No.  1209, 
A  for  the  Codex  Alexandrinus,  C  for  the  Codex 
of  Ephraem,  etc. 

The  cursive  manuscripts  ranging  in  date  from 
the  ninth  to  the  sixteenth  centuries,  are  very 
numerous,  but  of  comparatively  small  value, 
although  some  of  them  form  remarkable  excep- 
tions to  this  rule.  Only  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  have  been  fully  collated.  They  are  desig- 
nated by  the  use  of  numerals.  Very  important 
among  the  cursives  are  a  few  that  will  be  described 
more  fully  upon  a  future  page. 

As  for  the  ancient  translations  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, many  have  come  down  to  us,  and  at 
least  fragments  of  them  are  open  to  our  study. 
These  versions  are  especially  valuable,  because 
many  of  them  were  made  at  a  date  prior  to  that 
of  any  extant  Greek  copy  of  the  text,  and  there- 
fore bear  witness  to  a  text  considerably  earlier 
than   any  document   in  our  possession.     Syriac, 


148         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

Coptic,  Armenian,  Sahidic,  Latin,  and  many 
other  versions  are  extant,  and  while  their  texts 
are  not  to  be  relied  upon  as  absolutely  correct,  one 
version  is  a  valuable  correction  to  another,  so  that 
their  testimony  is  veiy  strong.  Used  in  connec- 
tion with  each  other  and  with  the  Greek  manu- 
scripts, they  present  an  array  of  evidence  that  is 
very  valuable.  Versions  are  cited  by  small  letters 
of  the  alphabet,  and  abbreviations. 

Akin  to  the  evidence  of  versions  is  that  given 
by  the  early  quotations  from  the  Scriptures  by 
the  church  Fathers,  and  although  such  quotations 
are  generally  somewhat  free  and  give  every 
appearance  of  being  from  memory,  yet  they  find 
important  place  among  critical  materials.  Such 
quotations  are  indicated  in  the  critical  references 
by  a  few  letters  of  the  names,  as  Porph  for  Por- 
phyry ;  Epiph  for  Bpiphanius,  Hier  for  Jerome  or 
Hieronymus,  etc. 

Manuscripts  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  are 
deposited  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  where 
scholars  can  have  ready  access  to  them.  The 
largest  collections  are  in  Italy,  England,  France, 
and  Turkey.  It  is  strange  that  Germany,  having 
fewer  possessions  of  this  kind  than  either  France, 
Italy,  or  England,  should  have  done  more  than 
any  country  except  England  in  the  discovery  and 
critical  use  of  them.  In  the  fourth  edition  of 
Scrivener's  "  Introduction  "    the  following  state- 


CLASSES   AND   CHARACTERISTICS  I49 

meiit  of  the  Greek  manuscripts  according  to 
countries  is  made,  rearranged  however  in  the 
order  of  their  numbers  :  Turkey  (Oriental  Monas- 
teries), seven  hundred  and  twenty-four  ;  Italy,  six 
hundred  and  forty-four  ;  British  Empire,  four  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight ;  France,  three  hundred  and 
twenty-four  ;  Palestine,  two  hundred  and  sixty ; 
Greece,  one  hundred  and  ninety- seven  ;  Germany, 
one  hundred  and  forty  ;  Russia,  one  hundred  and 
four;  Spain,  thirty-four;  Egypt,  twenty-six. 
Smaller  numbers  are  in  Belgium,  Denmark, 
Sweden,  Holland,  Switzerland,  the  United  States, 
while  the  present  locality  of  at  least  thirty  known 
manuscripts  cannot  be  given. 


THE  SCIENCE  AND  THE  CRITICS 

AlyTHOUGH  the  science  of  textual  criticism 
is  of  comparatively  modern  origin,  it  would 
be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  it  had  no  substantial 
foundations  in  antiquity.  It  has  been  shown  that 
the  age  in  which  the  New  Testament  writings 
were  coming  into  being  was  not  an  uncritical  age, 
as  is  so  often  somewhat  flippantly  asserted,  and 
that  in  all  matters  of  genuineness  and  authenticity 
the  new  Scriptures  were  subjected  even  then  to 
discriminating  scholarship,  so  that  after  three 
centuries  of  patient  study  and  proof  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  biblical  materials  to  life,  both  the 
question  of  inspiration  and  that  of  historic  relia- 
bility were  reasonably  and  satisfactorily  settled. 
But  many  of  the  minds  that  were  actively 
engaged  upon  these  questions  had  had  special 
training  in  matters  of  verbal  criticism.  Some  of 
the  keenest  writers  were  of  the  school  of  Alex- 
andria, where  especial  attention  had  long  been 
bestowed  upon  this  very  branch  of  study,  particu- 
larly with  reference  to  the  Greek  classics.  We 
are  not  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  many  of  the 
Christian  Fathers  engaged  in  weighing  the  evi- 
150 


THE   SCIENCE   AND   THE   CRITICS  I5I 

dence  for  a  pure  text  of  the  Scriptures,  not  indeed 
according  to  modern  methods,  nor  with  that  thor- 
oughness which  alone  satisfies  the  scholar  to-day, 
but  with  a  degree  of  efficiency  which  proves  that 
their  eyes  were  not  blind  to  the  importance  of 
such  study.  The  quotations  of  the  earliest 
Fathers,  to  which  reference  was  made  in  the  last 
chapter,  show  that  while  they  often  quoted  very 
freely,  and  with  far  more  reference  to  the  spirit 
than  to  the  letter  of  a  passage,  they  yet  studied 
the  documents  in  their  possession  with  scrupulous 
care,  comparing  one  with  another  and  noting 
their  differences,  and  weighing  the  evidence  for 
the  truth  not  only  of  every  entire  work,  but  of 
every  reading  of  the  various  copies  as  well.  Ori- 
gen,  for  example,  well  called  the  "  Father  of 
Criticism,"  was  a  discriminating  student  and  edi- 
tor of  the  Septuagint,  and  his  labors  upon  tlie 
text  of  the  New  Testament  were  the  work  of  a 
trained  scholar.  Busebius  was  a  man  of  great 
learning,  and  he  spared  no  pains  or  expense  in 
journeys  and  the  collection  of  materials.  We 
have  already  spoken  of  the  work  of  Jerome,  both 
upon  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New.  Indeed, 
the  very  copies  of  the  Scriptures  in  manuscript 
that  have  come  down  to  our  day  give  indisputable 
evidence  of  the  desire  to  secure  a  text  that  should 
be  full  and  complete,  as  nearly  perfect  as  possible, 
for  they  are  covered  in  manv  instances  with  mar- 


153  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

ginal   notes,    corrections,   and  suggestions,  often 
entirely   erroneous,   but    showing    the   desire   to 
reach  the  truth  if  possible.     When  the  Bible  was 
first  printed,  the  text  used  for  the  purpose  was  the 
Latin  of  the  Vulgate,  which  of  course  went  back 
to  Jerome's  use  of  the  materials  at  his  hand,  and 
with  very  considerable  variations  represented  the 
Bible  as  Jerome  translated  it ;  but  as  we  traced 
the  work  of  Jerome  we  saw  what  difficulty  he  had 
in  determining  the  text,  and  we  find  it  impossible 
to  be  content  with  the  results  of  his  work,  and 
least  of  all  with  its  condition  at  the  beginning  of 
what  may  be  termed  the  modern  period  marked 
by  the  invention  of  printing.     In  the  year  1502,  a 
new  attempt  was  made  to  prepare  an  edition  of 
the   whole    Bible   in   the   original   Hebrew  and 
Greek,  together  with  the  Chaldee  of  the  Targum 
of  Onkelos,  the  Septuagint  Greek,  and  the  Vul- 
gate.    Cardinal  Ximenes  called  to  his  aid  a  large 
number  of  scholars  to  undertake  the  work,  which 
was   done   at   Complutum  in  Spain.     The  New 
Testament  was  finished  in  15 14,  and  published  in 
1522.     For  this  edition  many  manuscripts  were 
put  at  the  disposal  of  the  scholars  by  the  guard- 
ians of  the  papal  library  at  Rome,  but  it  has  never 
been   clearly  understood  what   these   documents 
were,  though  they  seem  to  have  been  of  compara- 
tively late  dates.     This  edition  received  the  name 
"The  Complutensian  Polyglott  "  from  the  place 


THE   SCIENCE   AND   THE   CRITICS  1 53 

where  it  was  made.  Erasmus  then  undertook  an 
edition  in  1516,  prepared  with  great  haste  chiefly 
from  manuscripts  preserved  at  Basle,  dating  from 
about  the  sixteenth  century,  with  one  or  two 
others  somewhat  older,  but  not  of  first  value. 

Numerous  editions  followed,  varying  much  from 
each  other  in  minor  details,  each  serving,  however, 
to  increase  interest  in  the  subject  and  to  emphasize 
the  need  of  pursuing  the  study  ;  but  all  these  edi- 
tions retained  most  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
edition  of  Erasmus,  sometimes  going  back  to  the 
Complutensian  authority.  Then  came  two  edi- 
tions brought  out  with  great  external  elegance  by 
two  famous  printers,  a  Paris  folio  in  1550,  edited 
and  printed  by  R.  Estienne,  and  an  edition  by  the 
Elzevirs,  of  Leyden,  in  1624,  which  seemed  to 
claim  a  certain  superiority  by  their  elegance  which 
was  not  warranted  by  their  text.  However,  the 
second  edition  of  the  Elzevir  Bible,  in  1633, 
announced  boldly  that  its  text  was  ''  the  text  now 
received  by  all,"  and  the  claim  seems  to  have 
remained  undisputed  ;  the  words  passed  into 
general  use  as  designating  the  "received  text," 
and  so  the  term  textus  receptiis  came  into  use,  and 
is  frequently  before  the  eye  of  the  reader  to-day. 

But  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury a  new  desire  arose  to  pursue  the  inquiry  to 
more  complete  and  satisfactory  issues.  A  great 
manuscript  had  been  brought  to  Europe  by  Cyril 


154  'I'HE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

IvUcar,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  in  1628, 
and  given  to  the  English  monarch,  as  will  be 
related  more  fully  when  we  come  to  speak  of  the 
Alexandrine  manuscript  in  the  chapter  upon  the 
great  uncials  of  the  fifth  century.  English 
scholars  became  greatly  interested,  and  Fell  and 
Walton  and  Mill  led  the  way,  followed  by  Bentley 
and  others.  France  and  Germany  advanced  the 
work,  Simon  (i 689-1 695)  contributing  largely  to 
the  discontent  with  the  received  text,  and  Gries- 
bach,  Scholz,  and  others  appealing  to  larger  sup- 
plies of  materials,  and  employing  better  methods 
of  study.  But  it  was  reserved  for  Lachmann, 
beginning  in  1831,  to  apply  the  great  principles  of 
criticism  which  are  generally  followed  at  the 
present  time,  and  which  declare  a  complete 
emancipation  from  the  received  text  in  order  to 
appeal  to  the  most  ancient  and  valuable  manu- 
scripts, many  of  which  had  then  come  to  light, 
while  many  others  of  the  first  value  have  since 
come  into  our  possession.  Henceforward  a  clearly 
scientific  method  was  to  be  pursued,  and  other 
grekt  scholars  joined  with  Lachmann,  and  followed 
him  in  the  pursuit  of  his  great  task.  Tischendorf, 
in  Germany,  and  Tregelles,  in  England,  began 
their  researches  and  publications,  and  their  labors 
have  been  worthily  succeeded  by  those  of  West- 
cott  and  Hort,  resulting  in  a  Greek  text  that  is 
perhaps  as  near  to  the  original  autographs  of  the 


THE  SCIENCE   AND   THE   CRITICS  1 55 

New    Testament   writers    as    can    ever  be   pro- 
duced. 

The  immense  labor  and  the  complete  success 
of  the  textual  critic  may  be  imagined  from  the  ac- 
counting of  the  various  readings  noted  in  existing 
documents,  about  two  hundred  thousand.  But  it 
must  not  be  understood  that  this  large  number 
represents  actually  doubtful  places  in  the  New 
Testament,  for  nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
truth  than  such  an  impression.  Bach  document 
is  compared  in  turn  with  one  standard,  and  the 
number  of  variations  noted  ;  these  various  sums 
are  then  added  together  to  make  the  actual  num- 
ber of  variations.  An  immense  number  of  these 
may  be  counted  perhaps  upon  a  single  word  or 
passage,  and  so  the  real  variation  is  repeated  many 
times.  In  fact,  the  results  of  modern  criticism 
have  shown  that  among  these  many  variations 
comparatively  very  few  are  of  great  importance. 
Dr.  Ezra  Abbot,  in  an  essay  upon  "  The  New 
Testament  Greek  Text,"^  in  which  he  indicates 
very  fully  the  character  of  the  variations,  setting 
their  total  number  as  then  known  at  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  says  that  we  may 
dismiss  nineteen-twentieths  from  consideration  at 
once  as  being  obviously  of  such  a  character,  or  sup- 
ported by  so  little  authority,  that  no  critic  would 
regard  them  as  having  any  claim  to  reception. 

^  "Critical  Essays,"  p.  208. 


156  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Nineteen-twentieths  of  the  remainder  are  of 
no  consequence  as  affecting  the  sense,  as  they 
relate  merely  to  matters  of  spelling,  grammatical 
construction,  the  order  of  the  words,  or  similar 
questions.  Perhaps  about  four  hundred  cases  re- 
main which  involve  a  difference  of  meaning,  often 
very  slight,  but  sometimes  having  a  relative  im- 
portance of  some  magnitude.  It  may,  however, 
be  safely  said  that  no  Christian  doctrine  or  duty 
rests  on  those  portions  of  the  text  which  are 
affected  by  differences  in  the  manuscripts ;  still 
less  is  anything  essential  to  Christianity  touched 
by  the  various  readings.  Perhaps  the  only  excep- 
tion to  this  statement  would  be  the  bearing  of  a 
few  passages  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  but 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  that  doctrine  by  no  means 
depends  upon  the  readmg  of  those  passages  alone. 
It  has  thus  been  determined  definitely  and  upon 
adequate  evidence,  that  the  New  Testament  has 
been  transmitted  to  us  with  no  essential  variation, 
and  that  we  have  it  in  its  verity  as  it  came  from 
the  writers  of  the  first  century. 

The  reader  cannot  fail  to  find  it  of  interest  to 
know  something  beyond  the  mere  names  of  the 
few  great  scholars  of  modern  times  who  have 
contributed  largely  to  this  result.  Their  names 
will  appear  so  frequently  upon  future  pages,  and 
their  achievements  will  be  so  detailed,  that  brief 
sketches  of  tlieir  lives  are  here  given. 


Group  op  Biblical  Scholars. 

Lachmann.  Tregelles. 

Tischendorf. 

Abbott.  Scrivener. 

Pages  157-170. 


THE   SCIENCE   AND   THE   CRITICS  I57 

Kari.  IvACHMANN  leads  the  whole  band  of 
modern  scholars,  as  we  have  said,  for  he  was  the 
first  to  proclaim  freedom  from  slavery  to  the  re- 
ceived text,  and  to  declare  the  necessity  of  going 
back  to  the  most  ancient  materials  accessible. 
He  was  born  at  Brunswick  in  Germany,  March 
4,  1793,  and  received  his  education  at  the  uni- 
versities of  Leipzig  and  Gottingen.  Philological 
pursuits  were  his  choice,  and  he  soon  won  dis- 
tinction. He  served  in  the  army  in  the  struggle 
against  Napoleon  from  1813  to  1815,  after  which 
he  was  appointed  Professor  Extraordinary  at 
Konigsberg  in  1818,  and  at  Berlin  in  1825.  Here 
he  did  his  great  work-  and  won  the  honors  of  his 
career.  From  the  year  181 6  to  that  of  his  death, 
1851,  his  literary  labors  were  without  intermis- 
sion, and  apart  from  his  biblical  studies  he  pub- 
lished many  valuable  editions  of  Greek,  Latin, 
and  German  classics.  But  in  the  year  1831,  his 
edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  Greek  appeared 
and  at  once  placed  him  among  the  first  of  biblical 
scholars.  In  this  work  he  went  back  to  the  oldest 
Greek  manuscripts  then  to  be  obtained,  and  made 
large  use  of  the  Greek  Fathers,  while  he  appealed 
to  the  earliest  Latin  whenever  discordant  readings 
in  the  Greek  sources  made  it  necessary  to  do  so. 
Comparatively  few  Greek  codices  were  then  at 
his  command,  but  the  boldness  of  his  plan,  and 

the  enunciation  of  an  entirely  new  principle  in 
o 


158  THK  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

criticism  of  the  New  Testament  text,  were  of 
quite  as  much  value  as  the  first  edition  of  his 
work  itself.  A  second  edition  soon  appeared  in 
which  he  carried  the  principle  yet  farther.  To 
discard  all  traditional  authority  inhering  in  the 
Textus  Receptus,  to  pass  by  the  work  of  former 
editors  and  appeal  directly  to  the  most  ancient 
manuscripts  themselves,  to  question  the  Fathers 
and  from  their  quotations  to  discover  the  Bible  of 
their  day,  to  summon  as  witnesses  the  earliest 
versions,  and  comparing  all  to  prepare  a  text 
quite  independent  of  that  which  had  been  relied 
upon  previously,  was  the  new  effort  of  Lachmann, 
in  which  he  laid  the  broad  foundations  of  the 
modern  science  of  textual  criticism.  He  knew 
that  his  work  was  far  from  complete,  and  that 
others  would  have  richer  materials  and  larger 
knowledge  with  which  to  pursue  the  research  ; 
he  regarded  himself  as  a  pioneer,  laying  open  the 
path  in  which  others  should  tread  more  safely  and 
with  swifter  progress  ;  but  that  pioneer  work  was 
necessary,  and  lyachmann  has  been  regarded  al- 
ways as  the  leader  of  the  great  band  of  scholars 
who  have  given  us  our  best  knowledge  of  the 
New  Testament. 

lyOBEGOTT  Friedrich  Constantin  Tischen- 
DORF,  was  born  in  Lengenfeld,  Germany,  January 
18,  1815,  the  ninth  child  of  his  parents.  The 
name  lyobegott,  or  Praise  God,  was  given  to  him 


THE  SCIENCE   AND   THE   CRITICS  1 59 

by  his  mother,  who  had  had  a  presentiment  that 
her  child  would  be  born  blind,  and  when  lie  was 
found  to  have  good  eyes,  her  thankful  heart  in- 
sisted that  his  name  should  testify  to  God's  good- 
ness in  this  respect.  The  mother  would  have  felt 
even  more  justified  in  thus  naming  her  son  if  she 
could  have  foreseen  that  his  remarkably  keen  sight 
and  wonderful  sagacity  would  enable  him  to  de- 
cipher sacred  documents  that  no  other's  eyes  could 
read,  and  to  become  the  first  scholar  of  the  world 
in  the  determination  of  the  text  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures.  Tischendorf's  early  education  was 
that  usually  given  to  a  German  boy,  first  in  the 
common  school  at  Lengenfeld,  whence  he  went  to 
the  gymnasium  at  Plauen  to  prepare  for  the  uni- 
versity, which  he  entered  at  I^eipzig  in  1834.  It 
was  here  that  he  first  gained  public  notice,  his 
scholarship  winning  attention,  and  his  inclination 
to  biblical  studies  becoming  evident.  An  essay 
on  "The  Doctrine  of  the  Apostle  Paul  as  to  the 
Value  of  Christ's  Death  as  a  Satisfaction,"  won 
for  him  a  prize  medal,  and  when  published  in 
1837,  brought  to  him  the  applause  of  the  public. 
But  he  had  not  yet  settled  down  to  the  work  of 
his  life,  and  several  books  of  a  lighter  character 
appeared  :  a  volume  of  poems,  called  ^^  Mai- 
k7iospen,''  or  "May-buds"  and  a  novel,  ''  Der 
junge  Mystiker,'''  ''The  Young  Mystic,"  for  which 
he  used  the  pseudonym,  Dr.  Fritz.     After  trradu- 


l6o  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

ation  he  taught  a  little  while,  but  soon  returned 
to  lyeipzig  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  preparing 
an  edition  of  the  New  Testament. 

Henceforth  all  his  efforts  were  to  be  directed  to 
the  fulfillment  of  this  one  purpose  with  the  pur- 
suit of  the  various  researches  which  it  made  neces- 
sary. He  secured  the  small  grant  of  one  hundred 
thalers  a  year  for  two  years  from  the  government 
of  Saxony,  effected  a  loan  upon  his  life  insurance 
policy  as  security,  and  set  forth  to  visit  the  great 
libraries  and  study  the  documents.  He  was  now 
twenty-five  years  old.  "God  helps  those  who 
help  themselves,"  he  wrote,^  "and  full  of  faith 
that  what  is  right  must  prosper,  I  resolved  to  set 
out  for  Paris,  though  I  had  not  sufl&cient  means  to 
pay  even  for  my  traveling  suit."  In  Paris  he 
supported  himself  by  his  pen,  meanwhile  working 
assiduously  in  the  library.  The  first  edition  of 
his  New  Testament  appeared  in  1841,  was  received 
with  applause  by  the  scholars,  but  it  took  eight 
years  to  sell  an  edition  of  fifteen  hundred  copies. 
In  Paris  his  most  noteworthy  work  was  upon  the 
Kphraem  palimpsest,  as  described  more  fully  on 
a  later  page.  Many  travels  followed,  with  many 
labors  in  deciphering  manuscripts,  the  publication 
of  results,  and  the  constant  corrections  of  his  New 
Testament.  Among  these  toils  the  great  achieve- 
ment of  his  genius  and  patience  was  the  discovery 

*  "  Narrative  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  Manuscript." 


THK  SCIKNCK  AND  THE  CRITICS  l6l 

of  the  Codex  Sinaiticus  in  the  Convent  of  St. 
Catherine,  and  his  publication  of  it  in  lithographic 
fac  simile.  His  New  Testament  meanwhile 
advanced  from  edition  to  edition  until  the  eighth 
critica  major  was  nearly  completed  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  and  no  less  than  twenty-two  editions  of 
the  New  Testament  in  all  had  appeared  from  his 
hand. 

This  laborious  life  won  high  honors  which 
were  not,  however,  the  highest  joys  that  rewarded 
him.  These  he  found  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
studies  itself,  the  satisfaction  of  the  processes  and 
of  accomplishment,  and  in  the  fellowship  of  cul- 
tured minds.  Honorary  degrees  were  conferred 
upon  him  by  many  universities,  and  he  was 
elected  to  membership  in  learned  societies,  and 
orders  of  knighthood  were  given  him.  After  his 
discovery  of  the  Sinaitic  Codex  he  was  made  an 
hereditary  noble  of  the  Russian  empire,  and  his 
own  countrymen  henceforth  greeted  him  as  Con- 
stantin  vo7i  Tischendorf.  His  titles  were  but  the 
deserved  recognition  of  his  real  nobility. 

In  his  will,  written  in  1863,  Tischendorf  wrote 
as  follows  :  ''  God  has  bestowed  on  me  a  happy 
life,  richly  adorned  by  his  blessing.  Trouble  and 
toil  it  has  been,  but  it  was  to  me  in  truth  precious. 
May  God  put  his  blessing  also  on  that  which  I 
leave  to  posterity ;  it  is  his  own  work.  My  hand 
has  served  only  him,  according  to  my  best  knowl- 


l6z  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

edge  and  conviction,  even  though  in  all  weak- 
ness. In  science  I  pursued  no  other  aim  than  the 
truth  ;  to  it  I  have  unconditionally  bowed  the 
knee  ;  I  never  subordinated  my  conviction  to 
applause  on  the  right  hand  or  the  left  ...  I  have 
purposed  and  sought  only  that  which  serves  truth 
and  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord." 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  his  labors  that  he  was 
stricken  down  by  apoplexy  on  the  fifth  of  May, 
1873.  For  more  than  a  year  he  lingered,  until 
the  seventh  of  December,  1874,  when  he  who  was 
at  once  a  gieat  scholar  and  a  simple-hearted 
Christian,  went  away  to  receive  his  honors  from 
his  Lord. 

Dr.  Caspar  Ren^  Gregory,  a  distinguished 
American  scholar,  resident  in  Leipzig  and 
honored  as  the  successor  to  Tischendorf  s  labors 
in  the  completion  of  his  last  edition  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  the  preparation  of  its  Prolego- 
mena, writes  thus  concerning  the  character  and 
achievements  of  the  great  German^ :   ' '  If  greatness 

^  Dr.  Gregory's  great  work  is  completed,  the  Prolegomena  to  Tisch- 
endorf s  Greek  Testament,  Vol.  III.,  of  the  edi/io  octava  critica 
major,  Leipzig,  J.  C.  Hinrichs.  "  Almost  thirty  full  years  from  the 
day  when  the  first  fascicle  of  this  edition  went  forth,  almost  eighteen 
from  that  when  I  undertook  the  work  of  writing  these  Prolegomena, 
after  the  first  part  published  in  the  year  1884,  the  second  in  the  year 
1890,1  offer  the  final  part  to  the  kind  reader."  Thus  begins  the 
Latin  preface  by  Dr.  Gregory,  and  thus  patient  and  thorough  is  his 
scholarship.     The  volume  is  published  just  as  this  book  goes  to  press. 


THE  SCIENCE  AND  THE   CRITICS  1 63 

consists  ill  the  unwearying  pursuit  of  one  idea, 
Tiscliendorf  was  great.  If  greatness  consists  in 
persistent  and  successful  application  to  the  study 
of  difficult  tilings,  Tiscliendorf  was  great.  If 
greatness  consists  in  surmounting  hindrances 
and  prejudices,  scholastic,  religious,  and  national, 
Tiscliendorf  was  great.  If  greatness  consists  in 
the  acquaintance  with  the  use  of,  and  the  turning 
to  general  advantage  of,  the  chief  literary  treas- 
ures of  Europe  and  of  the  nearest  East,  Tisclien- 
dorf was  great.  If  greatness  consists  in  earning 
the  gratitude  of  the  scholars  of  all  lands,  Tischen- 
dorf  was  great.  And  if  greatness  consists  in  a 
participation  alike  in  the  favor  of  prince  and 
scholar,  of  State  and  of  Church,  Tiscliendorf  was 
great.  "^  Dr.  Gregory  gives  a  list  of  the  writings 
of  Professor  Tischendorf,  which  fills  eleven  closely 
printed  pages. 

Samuel  Prideaux  Tregelles,  the  famous 
English  critic,  was  born  two  years  earlier  and 
died  four  months  later  than  Tischendorf,  and  thus 
his  labors  were  almost  exactly  coincident  in  time 
with  those  of  the  German  scholar.  He  was  bom 
at  Falmouth,  England,  January  30,  1813.  His 
parents  were  Quakers,  and  their  son  was  reared 
in  the  quiet  life  of  that  community.  In  later 
years  he  shared  the  views  of  the  Plymouth  Breth- 
ren, and  afterward  worshiped  with  the  Presbyte- 

1 "  Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  Vol.  XXXIII.,  153. 


164  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

rians.  His  early  education  was  meagre,  being  that 
which  was  offered  by  the  Falmouth  Classical  School. 
After  this  period  of  school  life  was  closed  he 
labored  for  six  years  in  the  iron  works  at  Neath 
Abbey,  Glamorganshire,  which  must  have  been 
a  severe  test  to  a  spirit  in  which  the  genius  of  a 
scholar  was  already  making  itself  felt.  He  soon 
found  more  congenial  occupation  as  a  private 
tutor,  and  at  an  early  age  began  to  devote  himself 
with  special  zeal  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  in  the 
original  languages  and  some  of  the  older  versions, 
particularly  the  Syriac.  His  interest  and  profi- 
ciency in  the  study  of  Hebrew  was  shown  by  a 
translation  of  Gesenius'  Hebrew  Lexicon  pub- 
lished in  1847,  ^^^^  many  works  of  a  similar  char- 
acter. As  early  as  1838,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
he  had  formed  the  plan  of  a  critical  edition  of  the 
New  Testament  to  be  founded  solely  on  ancient 
authorities,  and  though  he  published  the  book  of 
the  Revelation  in  Greek  in  1844,  the  prospectus 
of  the  whole  work  was  not  issued  until  1848. 
The  work  was  to  appear  in  parts,  the  first  of  which 
containing  Matthew  and  Mark  was  issued  in  1857, 
and  the  closing  part  in  1872.  About  midway  in 
this  great  work,  Tregelles  suffered  a  stroke  of  par- 
alysis, which  rendered  its  completion  a  matter  of 
great  difficulty  and  heroic  application.  He  had 
never  had  robust  health,  and  through  all  his  life 
was   poor.     In    1862,   a   grant  of   one    hundred 


THE  SCIENCE   AND  THE  CRITICS  1 65 

pounds  a  year  was  made  to  him  from  the  govern- 
ment, and  this  was  doubled  in  1870  ;  but  even 
this  aid  did  not  place  him  beyond  the  reach  of 
want,  particularly  with  respect  to  the  means 
necessary  for  the  pursuit  of  his  costly  studies, 
which  compelled  him  to  take  long  journeys  and 
live  for  considerable  periods  away  from  home. 
His  labors  were  excessive  and  often  without  due 
recognition  ;  his  eyesight,  always  poor,  grew  very 
dim  in  his  later  years,  and  wholly  failed  him  a 
considerable  time  before  his  death,  which  occurred 
at  Plymouth,  April  24,  1875.  It  is  pathetic  to 
note  the  struggle  of  his  later  years,  when  the  one 
absorbing  purpose  was  to  finish  his  New  Testa- 
ment and  place  in  the  hands  of  subscribers  the 
completed  work,  a  struggle  with  disease  and 
blindness,  but  successful,  and  worthy  to  win  for 
him  a  place  among  the  heroes  as  well  as  among 
scholars.  Says  Dr.  Abbot  of  this  work  in  1875, 
before  the  edition  of  Westcott  and  Hort  ap- 
peared :  "It  will  not  meet  all  the  demand  of  the 
critical  student.  It  ignores  a  considerable  portion, 
though  not  often  a  decisive  portion,  of  the  evi- 
dence for  the  various  readings  ;  but  it  is  by  far  the 
most  important  original  contribution  which  Eng- 
land has  made  in  the  present  century  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  pure  text  of  the  Greek  Testament.  It 
is  a  monument  of  the  most  conscientious,  disinter- 
ested, and  arduous  labor,  prosecuted  with  indomit- 


1 66  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

able  perseverance  and  zeal,  under  discouraging 
circumstances,  for  a  high  end.  The  author  has 
earned  a  title  to  the  warmest  gratitude  of  all  who 
are  interested  in  the  study  of  the  New  Testament. 
.  .  .  Rare,  indeed,  are  the  examples  of  such 
patient,  unwearied,  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  a 
noble  object  as  his  life  presents  ;  and  ever  honored 
be  his  memory  !  " 

Ezra  Abbot,  whose  words  have  just  been 
quoted,  must  be  named  as  the  foremost  American 
scholar  in  this  department  of  learning.  His  life 
and  successful  labors  are  one  more  example,  not 
unlike  that  of  Tregelles,  of  the  rise  of  a  lofty  soul 
from  circumstances  not  favorable  to  ambition. 
He  was  born  in  Jackson,  Waldo  County,  Me., 
April  28,  1 8 19.  His  educational  advantages  were 
much  greater  than  those  of  Tregelles.  He  was 
fitted  for  college  at  Phillips  (Exeter)  Academy, 
graduated  at  Bowdoin  College  in  1840,  receiving 
its  degree  of  A.  M.  in  1843  5  ^^^  removed  to  Cam- 
bridge in  1847,  ^^^  after  some  time  spent  in  teach- 
ing and  in  working  in  the  libraries  of  Harvard 
College  and  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  he  became 
assistant  librarian  of  Harvard  College  in  1856,  a 
position  which  he  retained  until  his  appointment 
as  the  Bussey  professor  of  New  Testament  Criti- 
cism and  Interpretation  in  the  Harvard  Divinity 
School  in  1872.  His  conspicuous  ability  and 
large  attainments  as  a  biblical  scholar  had  been 


THE  SCIENCE   AND   THE   CRITICS  167 

recognized  many  years  previous  to  his  election  to 
this  professorship.  In  1852,  he  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  and  from 
1853  was  ^^s  recording  secretary  ;  in  1861,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  ;  in  1871,  he  was  appointed  University 
Lecturer  on  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  New 
Testament ;  and  in  the  same  year  he  was  chosen 
as  one  of  the  American  Company  for  the  revision 
of  the  English  Bible.  Honorary  degrees  were 
conferred  upon  him  by  Harvard,  Yale,  and  Bow- 
doin  Colleges  ;  and  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divin- 
ity was  tendered  by  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
at  its  tercentenary,  but  he  died  before  the  celebra- 
tion occurred.  Prof.  J.  H.  Thayer,  D.  D.,  write; 
of  "  the  variety  and  extent  of  his  learning,  the  re- 
tentiveness  and  accuracy  of  his  memory,  and  the 
penetration  and  fairness  of  his  judgment,  which 
won  for  him  the  highest  place  in  the  esteem  of  the 
learned  world.  His  rare  gifts  and  attainments, 
however,  were  .no  more  conspicuous  than  the 
moral  qualities  that  endeared  him  to  all  who 
knew  him.  He  was  generous  to  a  fault,  giving 
time  and  strength  and  learning  to  those  whose 
own  acquisitions  were  inferior  to  his  own."  Presi- 
dent Woolsey  said  :  "  He  surpassed  all  men  wliom 
I  ever  knew  in  his  readiness  to  serve  others  who 
had  but  few  books  on  hand,  and  did  not  know 
where  to  look  for  information. '^     Another  said  : 


1 68  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

^'He  has  spent  his  life  in  reading  other  people's 
proof-sheets."  In  all  his  work  he  was  wholly  un- 
partisan.  No  more  honest  scholar  ever  lived,  and 
he  gave  all  his  energies  to  a  conscientious  deter- 
mination of  the  truth.  This  great  moral  force  of 
his  character  rendered  his  scholarship  especially 
valuable  in  his  chosen  work  of  biblical  criticism. 
His  judgments  were  formed  only  after  a  perfectly 
candid  examination  of  all  the  facts,  and  the  re- 
sults obtained  carried  the  more  conviction  to  the 
minds  of  others.  His  great  essay  upon  "  The  Au- 
thorship of  the  Fourth  Gospel  "  is  "  the  best  illus- 
tration of  biblical  criticism  which  American  sacred 
literature  ajBfords." 

Frederick  Henry  Ambrose  Scrivener  was 
born  very  near  the  date  of  the  birth  of  Tischen- 
dorf  and  Tregelles,  September  29,  1813,  at  Ber- 
mondsey,  England.  He  graduated  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  in  1835.  For  a  few  years  he 
was  a  teacher,  but  in  1839,  ^^  took  charge  of  the 
parish  of  Sandford  Orcas  in  Somerset,  and  after- 
ward taught  the  Falmouth  School  at  the  same  time 
that  he  served  one  of  the  churches  of  Falmouth, 
thus  beginning  the  great  labors  that  ceased  only 
with  his  death.  In  1861,  he  became  rector  of  St. 
Gerrans  in  Cornwall,  whence  he  removed  to  Ex- 
eter, and  thence  to  lyondon,  taking  charge  of  the 
large  parish  of  Hendon  in  1876.  As  early  as 
1845  ^^  began  the  collection  of  manuscripts  of  the 


THE  SCIENCE    AND  THE   CRITICS.  169 

New  Testament.  His  ^^  Novmn  Testament  inn 
GrcEcnm^'^^  published  in  i860,  and  in  a  second 
edition  in  1867,  compared  the  work  of  several 
critics  and  found  wide  favor.  But  his  great  work  is 
the  ''Plain  Introduction,"  just  issued  in  its  fourth 
edition  as  this  page  is  written,  under  the  care  of 
the  Rev.  Edward  Miller,  m.  a.,  of  Oxford,  and 
after  the  death  of  Dr.  Scrivener.  In  London  he 
had  the  care  of  a  parish  of  more  than  five  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  whose  numbers  and  needs  were 
constantly  increasing,  and  his  literary  labors  were 
thus  pursued  amid  great  difficulties.  After  pre- 
paring about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  pages 
of  the  third  edition  of  the  "Introduction,"  he 
was  stricken  by  paralysis  and  his  future  work 
sufiered  still  further  hindrance,  but  it  seems  that 
the  spirit  of  a  scholar  is  indomitable,  and  he  per- 
severed with  his  toil  until  his  death.  He  occu- 
pied a  conservative  position  as  a  critic,  always 
favoring  the  received  text,  and  often  carrying 
this  preference  to  an  extreme.  He  was  also  a 
champion  of  the  cursives,  and  generally  gave  them 
a  higher  place  as  authorities  than  was  granted 
them  by  other  scholars. 

Many  names  of  prominent  living  critics,  as  well 
as  those  of  others  who  have  passed  into  the  Silence, 
might  be  dwelt  upon  in  these  pages,  and  from 
them  all  could  be  learned  the  lessons  of  devotion 
which  are  of  importance  in  these  hurried  and  often 
p 


170  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

selfish  days.  America  is  not  without  illustrious 
men  whose  labors  have  placed  them  in  the  front 
rank  of  biblical  scholarship,  and  whose  critical 
knowledge  of  the  sacred  texts  is  of  high  authority. 
To  all  such  consecrated  lives  the  Christian  church 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  it  can  best  repay  by 
its  reverence  for  the  written  word,  and  its  loyalty 
to  the  Word  in  flesh,  of  whom  it  testifies. 


-r6f  CI  CTHN  no  AlWkfl-" 
A'x'kOfJT'-'*/.  |i   yf  I  »  IK. 

^yT-OY-»^Y*'"' ",'- '  -^  ''"' 


■»'<?CeKA 


K *•  I <   Ml*.*; 3y C"Om  I  .    r 

r"      M//>Ar       ui>,or*i.'i/.»  K/., 

-»-<»».y  -I  r>iro7^»#i.iY^,yM 

*. ».  xn^'ci  I  vYTr,ic*.t  I  -»-■ 
eVo'oH  noil  iirj^Ci'»Y 
r.'t.  .'M^>Y/-xNiiji.:Vi 


> 

+                        +                    +                  "■ 

•'    'YT'.OY.    ^r,  .>Y-'-."7       1 
itMeYM^-roc^i^v,-,...         «/ 

«i_HK-*.IIA.^Yt  r.-M.  I-.7 

l-'r-'.'I'r',','"!'.'?,-"^",' 

M;'-r."f,^''v,'!-'!l^'iL:f,?^'r 


i^z:-;:-!:: 

•OAY<-> 

'iMIl* 

'VX<lJf*,K-»,l"l 

i,  for..-,-  ^n 

n  VI 1 

tt^nr^ 

1     il<^\  villi 

,  .>HT< 

>Y'i'^l 

T-'Y''"','^"^'"' 

'    f^*:' 

-rt-no-r  lOM 

iytc 

N<>i-i-*.<i,n, 

Kf-riV. 

;;.Yi:. 

K  i.lHMOIlUi 

r.yn<  M.   .-■! 

/■' '  ^*- 

cKAlf 

/voyr  xi     ,1. 

f  "*■ 

»v"'oYi"*.Vi 

1  ,1.1.. 

■fe, 

t  1.  iij-yc  r.  . 
•1  A,Jtr^.Yr■ 

•:'J::. 

■rcf,. 

>-■>   !■   ■- 

(.llll■.lMJ~)  /. 

■,    "t>'lM 

f^fuhY")   *• 

«  -(-(JM 

k4l>wc*>'rii>i 

1  'illO.' 

.11  ..  >. 

•fiuj»ixY-i  i'-, 

•    IXIX 

K  >!  n  : 

riKtMi^Y^ 

*Ti  ^^ 

•rof 

KPi>*.irri«f 

-•Yy-< 

r/i'ni 

»     A.rt'<ii      II  r* 

'n  1  \ 

UA.in-T'.irii 

'!^.B 

I'M      • 

(t-  •if  toll  ^•/ 

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:1-™^': 

.>?«A.f, 

1  -  1    1  .  ■.  • 

XMl.l 

"••'•' 

.^ 

Codex  Vaticanus,  B. 

I  Matt  2  ■! :  11-Mark  1 :  9.) 

Pas?e  171. 


XI 

THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS 
(Fourth  Century) 

''PHE  two  most  remarkable  and  valuable  Greek 
A  manuscripts  are  the  Codex  Vaticanus,  B,  and 
the  Codex  Sinaiticus,  both  dating  from  about 
the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  or  possibly  even 
earlier. 

The  Vatican  Codex  is  so  called  from  the  Vatican 
Library  in  Rome,  of  which  it  is  the  chief  treasure. 
This  library  was  founded  by  Pope  Nicholas  V.,  in 
the  year  1448,  and  it  contains  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable collection  of  books  in  the  world,  num- 
bering over  one  hundred  thousand,  of  which  more 
than  one-quarter  are  manuscripts.  The  first  cata- 
logue of  this  collection  was  published  in  1475  and 
the  Codex  B  appears  in  the  catalogue  of  that  date. 
The  manuscript,  therefore,  may  be  considered  to 
have  been  one  of  the  original  volumes  of  the  col- 
lection. It  seems  to  be  of  Alexandrine  origin,  but 
this  cannot  be  determined  with  certainty.  It  has 
been  said  to  have  belonged  to  a  learned  Greek  ec- 
clesiastic, named  Bessarion,  who  became  estranged* 
from  the  Greek  church  through  the  debates  of  the 

171 


172  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Councils  of  Ferrara  and  Florence,  sought  residence 
in  Italy,  and  was  raised  to  the  cardinalate  by  Pope 
Bugenius  IV.,  who  was  the  immediate  predecessor 
of  the  founder  of  the  Vatican  L/ibrary.  His  house 
in  Rome  was  the  repository  of  a  great  collection 
of  manuscripts,  and  the  resort  of  a  learned  circle. 
At  his  death  he  bequeathed  his  books  to  the  city  of 
Venice,  thus  beginning  the  library  of  St.  Mark  in 
that  city ;  but  it  is  hardly  probable  that  the  manu- 
script went  to  Venice  and  afterward  returned  to 
Rome,  and  we  cannot  be  sure  whence  it  came  into 
possession  of  the  Vatican.  Tischendorf  believed  it 
to  be  of  about  the  same  date  as  the  Sinaitic  man- 
uscript ;  but  others  have  thought  it  older,  and 
Tregelles  placed  its  possible  existence  as  early  as 
the  Council  of  Nicsea,  in  325,  and  certainly  before 
340.  Scrivener  speaks  of  it  as  "probably  the 
oldest  vellum  manuscript  in  existence,"  and 
Westcott  and  Hort  give  it  the  first  place  in  im- 
portance. 

The  Vatican  manuscript,  No.  1209  of  the  class 
catalogue  of  the  library,  contains  the  Septuagint 
version  of  the  Old  Testament,  of  which,  however, 
considerable  portions  have  been  lost :  all  the  book 
of  Genesis  to  chapter  46  :  28,  and  Psalms  105  to 
137  inclusive  ;  and  the  New  Testament  with  the 
exception  of  the  epistles  to  Philemon  and  Titus, 
the  two  to  Timothy,  that  to  the  Hebrews  after  the 
fourteenth  verse  of  chapter  nine,  and  the  whole 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 73 

of  the  Revelation.  These  lost  books  have  been 
said  to  be  in  the  codex  in  a  later  hand,  but  in 
fact  the  Revelation  alone  is  supplied  thus,  being 
the  product  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  whole  of  the  text  of  this  ancient  manu- 
script is  in  the  uncial  characters,  in  three  narrow 
columns  to  a  page,  and  the  letters  are  clear,  sim- 
ple, and  beautiful.  There  are  seven  hundred  and 
fifty-nine  very  thin  and  delicate  leaves  of  vellum, 
of  which  one  hundred  and  forty-six  belong  to  the 
New  Testament,  and  all  are  bound  in  one  volume 
of  red  morocco  about  ten  and  one-half  inches  in 
length,  ten  inches  in  breadth,  and  from  four  to 
five  inches  in  thickness.  There  are  no  divisions 
between  the  words,  but  a  change  from  one  subject 
to  another  is  sometimes  marked  by  a  space  of  a 
letter,  or  of  only  half  a  letter.  Originally  the  ini- 
tial letters  were  of  the  same  size  as  all  the  others, 
but  a  later  hand  has  written  larger  initials  by  the 
side  of  the  simpler  characters.  Punctuation  rarely 
appears,  except  as  interpolated  by  later  scribes,  and 
even  thus  it  is  rare,  occurring  only  four  times  in 
the  first  six  chapters  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew. 
At  present  the  text  is  provided  with  accents  and 
other  marks  which  were  once  considered  the  work 
of  the  original  writer.  A  dispute  upon  this  mat- 
ter once  raged,  but  it  was  at  last  determined  by 
the  aid  of  very  powerful  glasses  that  the  accents 
and  breathings  were  in  a  different  ink  from  the 


174  'I'HE   PARCHMENTS   OF   THE    FAITH 

main  body  of  the  text.  Titles  to  the  various 
books  are  written  above  them,  and  subscriptions 
also  appear.  Sometimes  later  copyists  have  added 
a  few  words,  as  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  the 
words,  //  was  writteit  from  Corinth  are  added  to 
the  genuine  subscription  to  the  Romans.  The  ink 
is  now  faded,  and  at  some  early  date  the  letters 
were  retouched  by  a  careful  hand  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  manuscript,  which  gives  it  a  peculiar 
appearance  and  renders  the  difficulty  of  its  critical 
examination  much  greater. 

This  ancient  codex  has  always  been  considered 
of  the  higest  value  in  the  determination  of  the 
true  readings  of  Scripture,  and  yet  it  has  been 
with  the  greatest  difficulty  until  recently  that 
scholars  have  gained  access  to  it.  The  present 
pontiff.  Pope  Leo  XIII. ,  has  pursued  a  far  more 
liberal  policy  than  that  of  his  predecessors,  and  a 
splendid  fac  simile  edition  by  phototype  has  been 
published  and  it  may  be  seen  in  many  of  the  well- 
equipped  libraries  of  Europe  and  America.  But 
for  a  long  time  the  manuscript  remained  hidden 
away  in  its  case,  and  was  used  only  by  scholars  of 
the  Roman  church.  Its  first  collation  was  made  by 
Bartolocci  in  1669  ;  another  followed  in  1725  by 
an  Italian  named  Mico,  who  prepared  it  for  the 
aid  of  the  English  scholar,  Bentley,  who  was 
projecting  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in 
Greek.     Other  attempts,  all  unsatisfactory,  were 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 75 

made,  notably  by  Cardinal  Mai  in  1838,  whose 
work  was  pnblislied  in  1857,  three  years  after  his 
death.  Vercellone,  a  monk  of  St.  Barnabas,  com- 
pleted a  better  edition  in  1859. 

But  Protestant  scholars  had  not  been  content 
with  these  efforts  made  under  the  grudging  pat- 
ronage of  the  Roman  church,  and  several  times 
attempted  to  study  the  precious  volume.  The 
extreme  jealousy  with  which  it  was  guarded  is 
well  illustrated  by  their  attempts  to  gain  the  privi- 
lege of  using  the  codex.  Dr.  Tregelles,  in  1845, 
went  to  Rome  with  this  sole  design.  Armed  with 
a  letter  from  Cardinal  Wiseman  he  succeeded  at 
last  in  receiving  the  coveted  permission  ;  but  two 
prelates  were  assigned  to  the  duty  of  watching 
him  and  they  would  not  even  permit  him  to  open 
the  volume  without  searching  his  pockets  and 
taking  away  all  implemeuts  by  which  he  could 
copy  the  text.  They  interfered  with  any  pro- 
longed study,  and  often  took  the  book  hurriedly 
away  from  him.  But  by  a  little  craft  and  patience 
he  succeeded  in  making  a  few  notes  on  his  cuffs 
and  finger  nails  !  Dean  Alford  made  a  similar 
attempt  in  1861,  and  Cardinal  Antonelli  gave  him 
a  special  permit  to  use  the  manuscript  for  the  pur- 
pose of  verifying  passages  ;  but  the  librarian  in- 
terpreted this  as  a  permission  merely  to  look  at 
the  book.  Tischendorf,  in  1843,  ^^^^  years  previ- 
ous to  the  attempt  of  Tregelles,  spent  some  months 


176  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

in  the  great  libraries  of  many  European  cities, 
and  after  he  had  become  well-known  as  a  critic, 
applied  at  the  Vatican  for  permission  to  study  its 
treasures.  Tischendorf  describes  his  difficulties 
in  the  most  interesting  way  in  an  article  in  the 
Leipsiger  Zeitung^  of  May  31,  1866  :  "  I  had  been 
commended  in  the  most  earnest  manner  by  Guizot 
to  the  French  ambassador,  Count  Latour  Mau- 
bourg  ;  I  was  also  favored  with  many  letters  of 
introduction  from  Prince  John  of  Saxony  to  his 
personal  friends  of  high  rank ;  and  in  addition 
with  a  very  flattering  note  from  the  Archbishop 
Affi-e,  of  Paris,  directed  to  Gregory  XVI.  The 
latter,  after  a  prolonged  audience  granted  to  me, 
took  an  ardent  interest  in  my  undertaking  ;  Car- 
dinal Mai  received  me  with  kind  recognition  ; 
Cardinal  Mezzofanti  honored  me  with  some  Greek 
verses  composed  in  my  praise  ;  but  notwithstand- 
ing I  had  to  content  myself  with  six  hours  for  a 
hasty  examination  of  the  Codex  Vaticanus  and 
the  transcription  va  fac  simile  of  a  few  lines." 
Twenty  -  three  years  later,  Tischendorf  made 
another  attempt.  In  the  meantime  he  had  dis- 
covered and  published  the  Codex  Sinaiticus,  and 
the  wide  fame  of  that  achievement  undoubtedly 
aided  him  now,  when  he  once  more  requested 
access  to  the  only  manuscript  of  equal  value  in  the 
world.     He  presented  himself  in  February,  1866, 

^  "  Wissenschaftliche  Beilage^''  pp.  189-192. 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     177 

before  the  papal  authorities,  and  after  much  trou- 
ble gained  the  desired  permission,  and  even  special 
concessions  were  given  by  which  he  could  have 
the  use  of  a  private  room,  with  the  extension  of 
his  time  bevond  the  usual  workino^  hours  of  the 
library.  Even  some  of  the  many  Roman  feast- 
days  when  the  library  would  be  closed  were  to  be 
disregarded  for  Tischendorf  s  benefit.  But  many 
of  these  privileges  were  speedily  restricted,  if  not 
withdrawn  altogether,  and  he  came  near  losing  all 
by  his  unwary  zeal  which  led  him  to  copy  very 
copiously,  until  a  suspicion  was  aroused  that  he 
was  gathering  materials  enough  to  compromise 
seriously  the  papal  edition  of  Cozza  and  Vercellone, 
then  in  preparation  and  soon  to  be  published.  In 
fact,  the  manuscript  was  taken  from  him  ;  but  he 
pleaded  so  well  and  made  such  liberal  promises 
of  aid  to  those  editors  in  producing  their  work, 
that  he  was  permitted  to  resume  his  task.  By  in- 
credible diligence  and  dexterity,  for  the  volume 
was  subject  to  his  inspection  only  forty-two  hours 
altogether,  he  succeeded  in  collating  the  whole 
text  and  in  making  a  transcript  of  twenty  pages. 
But  all  these  great  labors,  and  all  publications  of 
this  manuscript  have  now  been  largely  superseded 
by  the  magnificent  edition  in  five  volumes,  already 
referred  to,  reproducing  \nfac  simile  every  page  of 
the  codex.  It  is  a  splendid  work,  and  was  a 
worthy  gift  of  the  pope  to  the  late  World's  Fair  in 


178  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Chicago,  where  the  volumes  were  exhibited  in  the 
convent  of  Santa  Maria  de  la  Rabida.  The  text 
is  thus  given  to  the  world  in  all  its  completeness  ; 
but  the  work  upon  the  text  done  by  the  great 
critics  before  this  publication  loses  none  of  its 
value  thereby,  but  is  only  made  more  accessible 
and  more  intelligible  on  that  account. 

The  difficulty  attending  the  study  of  this  man- 
uscript in  the  past  renders  one  item  of  its  history 
of  peculiar  interest.  In  the  year  1808,  the  papal 
dominions  were  made  an  appendage  of  the  French 
empire.  The  conqueror,  Napoleon  I.,  caused 
many  of  the  treasures  of  the  Roman  museums  and 
libraries  to  be  carried  to  Paris,  and  among  them 
was  this  precious  codex.  Deposited  in  the  French 
capital  it  might  have  been  studied  freely,  had  any 
scholar  of  the  requisite  skill  been  disposed  to  apply 
himself  to  the  task.  Such  critics  were  not  ready, 
however,  and  when  Napoleon  was  overthrown  at 
Waterloo  in  1815,  the  manuscript  with  many 
other  treasures  in  Paris  was  returned  to  Rome. 
If  only  Tregelles  or  Tischendorf  could  have  seen 
the  famous  volume  in  red  morocco  before  it  went 
back  to  its  seclusion,  what  years  of  the  history  of 
textual  criticism  might  have  been  anticipated ! 
But  in  1815,  when  the  volume  was  sent  back  to 
Rome,  Tregelles  was  only  three  years  old,  and 
Tischendorf,  a  baby  of  two  years,  was  still  the 
petted  child  of  a  humble  home  in  lyengenfeld. 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 79 

God  has  his  own  times  in  which  his  great  pur- 
poses shall  be  accomplished. 

This  is  seen  even  more  strangely  in  the  in- 
tensely interesting  story,  now  oft  told,  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  other  great  authority  of  the  fourth 
century,  the  Sinaitic  Manuscript,  X. 

Among  all  the  wonderful  achievements  of  Tisch- 
endorf,  the  finding  and  the  publication  of  this  doc- 
ument will  ever  hold  the  prominent  place.  Dur- 
ing all  the  years  in  which  he  gave  himself  to  the 
critical  study  of  the  New  Testament  text,  he  was 
haunted  by  the  thought  that  many  libraries  in  the 
convents  of  the  East  must  contain  works  of  the 
greatest  value  in  his  department  of  labor,  and  he 
formed  the  project  of  journeying  thither  to  explore 
the  recesses  of  Greek,  Coptic,  Syrian,  and  Arme- 
nian monasteries.  It  was  not  until  the  year  1843 
that  he  could  put  his  plan  into  execution,  and 
then  only  with  difiiculty,  on  account  of  the 
poverty  which  harassed  all  of  his  earlier  labors. 
But  at  length  he  was  able  to  start,  making  it  his 
first  employment  to  examine  many  of  the  Euro- 
pean libraries,  and  it  was  at  this  time  that  he 
sought  access  to  the  Vatican  manuscript  as  related. 
Sailing  at  last  from  Leghorn,  in  March,  1844,  he 
arrived  on  the  4th  of  April  at  Alexandria,  whence 
he  proceeded  to  Cairo.  Though  he  visited  many 
conventual  establishments  in  the  vicinity,  he 
found  nothing  of  value,  and  he  set  out  from  Cairo 


l8o  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

on  May  I2tli  for  Suez  and  the  Sinaitic  Penin- 
sula. 

Near  the  base  of  Mt.  Sinai  stands  the  convent 
of  St.  Catherine,  dating  from  the  time  of  the  By- 
zantine emperor,  Justinian  (a.  d.  527-565),  who 
protected  the  little  church  erected  here  by  Helena, 
the  mother  of  Constantine,  by  a  fortification,  and 
so  endowed  it  that  from  this  early  time  it  has 
been  an  object  of  great  interest,  and  has  afforded 
hospitality  to  many  travelers.  According  to  the 
legend,  St.  Catherine,  a  virgin  of  noble  birth  and 
great  attainments  as  a  scholar,  suffered  martyrdom 
in  Alexandria,  November  25,  313,  under  the  per- 
secution of  Maximin.  Five  hundred  years  later 
her  body  was  discovered,  and  angels  transported 
it  through  the  air  from  the  scene  of  her  cruel 
death  to  the  top  of  a  lofty  peak  near  Sinai,where 
the  pious  monks  of  the  convent  received  it  and 
carried  it  down  to  its  final  resting-place  within  the 
walls.  Up  to  this  time  the  convent  had  been 
dedicated  to  the  Transfiguration,  but  its  name  was 
now  changed  to  St.  Catherine. 

Here  through  many  centuries  the  brotherhood 
has  devoted  itself  to  worship  and  quiet  study,  and 
a  rich  library  has  grown  up  in  the  course  of  time. 
Once  the  convent  was  the  resort  of  many  pil- 
grims, drawn  thither  on  account  of  the  sanctity 
of  the  spot,  and  chapels  were  erected  within  the 
walls  for  the  various  sects ;  and  it  may  be  that 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     l8l 

some  of  the  literary  treasures  were  brought  by 
these  pilgrims  as  an  ofifering  to  the  brotherhood. 
It  is  noteworthy,  however,  that  the  mouks  have 
never  made  any  considerable  contribution  to  the 
cause  of  learning,  and  the  strange  ignorance  and 
neglect  found  there  by  modern  travelers  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  comment. 

Tischendorf  arrived  at  St.  Catherine's  on  the 
24th  of  May.^  He  describes  his  first  view  of  the 
convent  as  very  inviting,  with  its  buttressed  walls, 
and  its  fine  gardens  of  cypress,  pomegranate,  and 
orange  trees.  The  walls  were  without  entrance 
except  through  a  door  elevated  about  forty  feet 
from  the  ground.  Arriving  beneath  this  aperture, 
the  Bedouins  of  his  party  gave  utterance  to  shrill 
cries,  and  discharged  a  volley  of  musketry  to 
announce  the  arrival  to  the  inmates,  who  soon 
appeared  above,  and  sought  the  name  and  creden- 
tials of  the  traveler.  After  considerable  parley- 
ing these  were  found  satisfactory,  a  rope  was 
lowered,  and  Tischendorf  was  drawn  up  into  the 
convent. 

He  was  allowed  free  access  to  the  library,  which 
was  rich  in  manuscripts.  For  some  time,  how- 
ever, it  seemed  that  his  researches  would  be  unre- 
warded by  any  discovery  of  value.  At  last  his 
eye  fell  upon  a  large  basket  full  of  old  parchments, 
standing  on  the  floor,  waiting  to  serve  as  kindlings 

1"  /^eise  in  den  Orient''  (Leipzig,  1846)  I,  2i6  seq. 
Q 


l82  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

when  the  next  fire  should  require  their  use.  Two 
basketfuls  of  similar  fragments  had  aheady  been 
employed  for  this  purpose.  But  these  mouldering 
leaves  were  destined  to  start  a  blaze  of  wonder 
and  delight  which  should  yet  throw  its  glow  over 
all  the  civilized  world,  for  as  Tischendorf  turned 
over  the  pieces  he  found  that  there  were  a  number 
of  leaves  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Greek,  which 
bore  evidence  of  being  more  ancient  than  any  he 
had  ever  seen.  His  quick  exclamation  and  his 
trembling  hands  revealed  somewhat  of  his  feelings 
and  threw  suspicion  into  the  minds  of  his  watch- 
ful companions  ;  but  they  allowed  him  to  appropri- 
ate a  small  portion  of  the  fragments,  consisting 
of  forty-three  leaves,  though  no  persuasions  could 
induce  the  monks  to  part  with  the  remainder, 
which  only  a  few  moments  before  they  had  been 
so  ready  to  burn.  The  scholar  carried  the  rescued 
portions  away  to  his  cell,  and  found  them  to  con- 
tain parts  of  I  Chronicles,  all  of  Nehemiah  and 
Esther,  parts  of  Jeremiah  and  Lamentations,  and 
parts  of  the  apocryphal  books  of  Tobit  and  2 
Bsdras.  He  afterward  added  a  copy  of  a  single 
page  containing  text  from  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah, 
which  he  was  enabled  to  make.  All  his  efforts, 
however,  to  gain  possession  of  the  remainder  of 
the  manuscript  met  with  failure.  His  satisfaction 
had  been  too  plainly  expressed,  and  the  brother- 
hood had  become  convinced  that  they  had  in  their 


THE  TWO  OI.DEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 83 

hands  a  treasure  which  ought  not  to  be  lightly 
surrendered.  Tischendorf  was  obliged  to  take  his 
departure,  content  yet  not  content,  with  the  forty- 
three  leaves. 

This  fragment,  a  small  part  only  of  the  great 
manuscript  which  was  destined  to  lie  hidden  yet 
many  years,  was  borne  to  lyeipzig,  where  it  was 
deposited  in  the  University  Library,  and  was 
named  by  its  discoverer  the  Codex  Friderico- 
Augustanus,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  patronage 
of  the  king  of  Saxony,  under  which  the  Eastern 
journeys  were  conducted. 

Many  years  passed  away,  in  which  the  labors 
of  Tischendorf  were  unremitted,  and  many  publi- 
cations of  lasting  value  to  students  of  the  Bible 
were  issued.  But  through  all  the  pressure  of 
these  duties,  he  never  forgot  the  treasure  that  had 
been  left  at  Sinai,  nor  gave  up  the  hope  of  one 
day  getting  possession  of  it.  He  made  attempts 
to  secure  the  manuscript  through  the  intercession 
of  a  friend  in  Egypt,  who  was  physician  to  the 
Viceroy,  but  the  only  response  was  :  "The  monks 
of  the  convent  have  learned  the  value  of  these 
sheets  of  parchment  since  your  departure,  and  will 
not  part  with  them  at  any  price."  But  hope 
refused  to  die  in  the  breast  of  the  ardent  scholar, 
and  he  determined  to  return  to  the  East  for  the 
purpose  of  copying  the  document,  if  he  could  not 
secure  the  original.     Accordingly,  in  February, 


184  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

1853,  ^^  stood  once  more  beneath  the  walls  of  tlie 
convent  and  was  welcomed  by  the  brotherhood. 
But  the  welcome  did  not  mean  success  ;  not  the 
slightest  trace  of  the  coveted  parchment  could  be 
found,  and  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  Europe. 

Tischendorf  could  not  rest.  Engaged  in  pre- 
paring a  multitude  of  publications,  he  was 
haunted  by  the  thought  that  somewhere^  however 
jealously  guarded,  was  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
most  precious  manuscript  in  the  world.  It  might 
not  be  at  St.  Catherine's  any  longer.  Perhaps  the 
archbishop  had  demanded  its  removal  to  some 
securer  depository.  Perhaps  it  had  been  wholly 
lost  through  the  carelessness  of  the  ignorant 
monks.  But  so  long  as  effort  could  be  made  to 
secure  it,  so  long  did  the  plan  remain  in  the  mind 
of  Tischendorf  to  search  further  for  it  until  he 
should  learn  with  certainty  that  it  could  not  be 
obtained. 

The  convent  at  Sinai,  like  many  other  establish- 
ments of  the  kind  in  the  East,  was  under  the 
ecclesiastical  system  of  the  Greek  Church,  of 
which  the  Emperor  of  Russia  is  the  nominal  head. 
It  was  believed  that  if  a  journey  were  undertaken 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Czar  himself,  that  the 
authority  of  his  commission  would  outweigh  all 
other  considerations  with  the  custodians  of  libra- 
ries, and  wherever  the  precious  document  might 
be   hidden   away   it   would   be   produced   at   the 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 85 

imperial  command.  In  the  autumn  of  1856  the 
scheme  was  broached  at  the  Russian  court,  but 
many  vexatious  hindrances  offered,  and  it  was  not 
till  January,  1859,  that  Tischendorf  was  enabled 
to  start  once  more  for  the  convent  at  Sinai,  this 
time  armed  with  documents  which  must  avail,  if 
any  could,  in  opening  to  him  the  most  secret 
alcoves  of  the  buildings.  It  should  be  remarked 
that,  during  the  whole  interval  since  his  first  jour- 
ney and  notwithstanding  the  interest  excited  by 
the  Codex  Friderico-Augustanus,  he  had  kept  the 
secret  of  the  place  in  which  he  had  found  it,  hav- 
ing imparted  it  only  to  the  two  or  three  friends 
who  aided  him  in  his  search.  On  the  31st  of 
January,  1859,  he  entered  the  convent  for  the 
third  time.  The  familiar  rooms  of  the  library 
were  thrown  open  to  him,  and  Cyril  of  Atlios,  the 
custodian  of  the  books,  showed  him  every  cour- 
tesy. Many  valuable  manuscripts,  some  of  which 
he  had  not  seen  in  his  previous  visits,  were  put 
into  his  hands ;  but  nowhere  was  the  one  treasure 
he  desired,  and  every  inquiry  was  met  with  sin- 
cere denials  of  its  existence  in  the  monastery. 
Tischendorf  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
had  either  been  destroyed,  or  removed  to  some 
other  library,  and  on  the  4th  of  February  he  gave 
orders  to  his  Bedouins  to  have  the  camels  ready 
on  the  7th  to  start  for  Cairo.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day  he  took  a  long  walk  with  the  stew- 


1 86  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

ard  of  the  convent,  returning  about  sunset,  and 
accepting  an  invitation  to  sup  with  the  steward  in 
his  own  apartment.  They  had  been  talking  of 
their  studies,  and  as  they  entered  the  steward 
said,  "I  too  have  been  reading  the  Septuagint 
lately,"  and  he  went  to  a  corner  of  the  cell  and 
brought  a  bulky  volume,  wrapped  in  a  red  cloth, 
and  laid  it  in  Tischendorf  s  hands.  The  scholar 
opened  the  book  and  saw  at  a  glance  that  the 
wish  of  years  was  attained.  But  how  much  more 
than  he  had  dared  hope  !  For  here  were  indeed  the 
fragments  that  he  had  left  in  the  waste-basket 
fifteen  years  before,  and  also  other  parts  of  the 
Old  Testament  ;  but,  better  than  all,  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament,  to  which  was  added  a  copy 
of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  and  a  part  of  the  Shep- 
herd of  Hermas,  books  not  of  canonical  authority, 
but  of  great  value  among  the  earliest  works  of 
Christian  authorship. 

With  that  night  the  German  scholar  began  a 
task  that  was  continued  with  never  flagging  zeal 
during  the  next  fourteen  years.  He  concealed 
his  feelings  as  well  as  he  could,  profiting  by  his 
former  experience,  and  asked  carelessly  if  he 
might  take  the  volume  to  his  room  to  examine  it 
a  little  more  leisurely.  Permission  was  readily 
granted,  and  after  the  supper  he  hastened  to 
depart.  Once  in  his  cell  alone,  he  gave  way  to 
unchecked  expressions  of  his  joy.      "  I  knew,"  he 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     187 

says,  *'  that  I  held  in  my  hands  the  most  precious 
biblical  treasure  in  existence — a  document  whose 
age  and  importance  exceeded  that  of  any  of  the 
manuscripts  J  had  ever  examined  during  twenty 
years'  study  of  the  subject.  I  cannot  now,  I  con- 
fess, recall  all  the  emotions  which  I  felt  in  that 
exciting  moment,  with  such  a  diamond  in  my 
possession."  There  was  no  sleep  for  him  that 
night.  By  the  dim  light  of  a  candle  he  set  to 
work  to  copy  the  Bpistle  of  Barnabas,  the  original 
Greek  of  which  had  never  been  discovered  before, 
and  which  was  known  only  through  a  Latin  trans- 
lation. Early  the  next  morning  he  applied  to  the 
steward  for  permission  to  take  the  manuscript  to 
Cairo  to  have  it  copied  in  full  ;  but  the  steward 
had  no  authority  to  grant  such  a  favor,  and  the 
prior  had  just  departed  for  Cairo  upon  his  way  to 
Constantinople  to  share  in  the  election  of  a  new 
archbishop.  Tischendorf  at  once  started  to  over- 
take him.  The  Russian  flag  was  hoisted  and  a 
salute  fired  as  the  scholar  rode  away.  He  found 
the  prior  at  Cairo,  and  his  consent  was  readily 
gained,  and  at  the  end  of  nine  days  the  book, 
brought  by  a  special  messenger  with  a  swift 
dromedary,  was  once  more  in  Tischendorf  s  pos- 
session. 

With  the  aid  of  two  German  friends,  and  with 
almost  incredible  toil,  the  whole  manuscript  was 
copied    within   the   space  of    two   months.     But 


l88  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

Tischendorf  now  treasured  the  hope  that  the  origi- 
nal itself  might  be  transferred  to  Europe.  A 
young  Englishman,  who  learned  of  the  precious 
document,  offered  to  buy  it  ;  but  the  prior  of  the 
monastery  said  that  the  brotherhood  preferred  to 
give  it  to  the  Russian  emperor.  This  was  just 
what  Tischendorf  desired,  but  the  consent  of  the 
new  archbishop  must  be  obtained  before  the  trans- 
fer could  be  effected,  and  the  archbishop  was  not 
yet  elected.  Unfortunately,  there  were  many 
difficulties  connected  with  the  election,  and  a  long 
delay  ensued  ;  but  Tischendorf  was  enabled  to 
assist  in  the  settlement  of  the  dispute,  and  at  last 
he  sailed  for  Europe  with  the  Sinaitic  manuscript 
and  many  other  treasures  in  his  possession. 

Now  followed  the  labor  of  preparing  an  edition 
of  the  codex  in  fac  simile.  The  work  was  pub- 
lished in  1862  in  four  volumes,  and  copies  were 
sent  by  imperial  gift  to  the  great  institutions  of 
learning  and  libraries  throughout  the  world. 
Subsequently  copies  were  sold,  and  several  of 
them  are  to  be  seen  in  America. 

Without  pausing  to  notice  the  honors  that 
poured  in  upon  the  great  scholar,  whose  sagacity 
and  perseverance  had  accomplished  so  great  a 
work,  we  must  pass  to  a  brief  description  of  the 
manuscript  itself. 

The  Sinaitic  Codex  has  three  hundred  and 
forty-six  and  a  half  leaves,  thirteen  and  a  half 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 89 

inches  wide  by  nearly  fifteen  inches  long.  One 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  these  leaves  contain 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  with  the  poetical  por- 
tions written  (stichometrically)  in  two  columns 
upon  a  page,  but  the  other  pages  with  four  col- 
umns. The  New  Testament  is  complete,  and 
with  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  and  the  Shepherd 
of  Hennas  occupies  the  remainder  of  the  volume. 
The  parchment  is  of  a  very  fine  quality — Tisch- 
endorf  says  it  is  made  from  the  skins  of  young 
antelopes — and  the  text  is  written  in  beautiful 
uncial  letters,  without  accents  or  breathings,  with 
no  spaces  between  the  words  and  no  large  initials. 
The  margins  have  the  Ammonian  sections  and 
Eusebian  canons.  Tischendorf  declared  that  he 
could  detect  the  corrections  of  at  least  ten  difier- 
ent  revisers,  extending  over  a  period  ending  in 
the  twelfth  century. 

It  should  be  said  in  conclusion  that  modern 
travelers  are  often  misled  by  the  discontent  which 
they  find  at  the  convent  of  St.  Catherine,  the 
monks  complaining  that  their  most  precious  liter- 
ary treasure  was  taken  from  them  by  some  trick- 
ery, and  assertions  in  books  of  travel  are  not  infre- 
quent to  the  efiect  that  the  great  Tischendorf  did 
not  deal  quite  fairly  with  the  monks,  who  had  re- 
ceived him  to  their  hospitality.  Dr.  Philip  SchafF, 
in  his  introduction  to  the  first  volume  of  Westcott 
and  Hort's  New  Testament  in  Greek,  says  that 


190  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

in  1877  lie  was  at  the  convent,  and  mentioned 
the  name  of  Tischendorf,  when  ''the  sub-prior 
kindled  up  in  indignation,"  and  said  that  "he 
had  stolen  their  greatest  treasure  on  the  pretext  of 
a  temporary  loan "  ;  and  when  reminded  of  the 
splendid  new  silver  shrine  given  to  the  monastery 
by  the  Emperor  of  Russia  in  exchange  for  the 
manuscript,  only  answered  that  "they  did  not 
want  the  silver,  but  the  manuscript " — the  manu- 
script which  these  monks  could  not  read,  and 
were  at  one  time  ready  to  throw  into  the  fire. 
The  facts  of  the  case  seem  to  be  that  at  first  the 
document  was  taken  "as  a  loan,"  Tischendorf 
himself  having  recorded  that  fact.  But  later 
negotiations  ensued,  which  resulted  in  a  change 
of  the  loan  to  a  .gift,  and  the  transfer  of  the  book 
was  perfectly  fair  and  conclusive.  It  may  be  that 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  brotherhood  of  St.  Cather- 
ine never  knew  all  the  steps,  perhaps  not  the  con- 
cluding steps,  of  the  transaction ;  the  real  author- 
ity to  transfer  the  manuscript  rested  in  other 
hands  than  theirs,  and  the  document  consigning 
it  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia  was  duly  signed  by 
Archbishop  Callistratos,  as  well  as  by  the  fathers 
of  the  monasteries  of  St.  Catherine  and  Cairo. 
In  addition,  the  archbishop  wrote  letters  to  Tisch- 
endorf, thanking  him  hi  the  name  of  the  brother- 
hood for  his  kind  endeavors  in  their  behalf. 
Whatever  misunderstanding  may  still  prevail  at 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     19I 

the  convent,  it  is  clear  that  the  principals  engaged 
in  the  transaction  are  free  from  reproach.^  Tisch- 
endorf  was  aware  of  the  aspersions  upon  his 
integrity,  and  indignantly  answered  them  in  his 
work,  "  Die  Sinaibibel^  Ihre  Entdeckiuig^  Heraus- 
gabe^  und  Erwerbung^^''  pp.  91,  92. 

So  did  this  priceless  volume  come  forth  from 
the  obscurity  of  ages,  henceforth  to  be  regarded 
by  Christian  scholars  as  sharing  with  the  Codex 
Vaticanus  the  first  place  in  the  ranks  of  all  the 
witnesses  to  the  original  text  of  the  Scriptures. 
Its  value  as  compared  with  that  of  the  Vatican 
manuscript  is  variously  estimated,  and  perhaps  it 
is  impossible  to  tell  which  is  the  more  important. 
In  one  respect  at  least  the  Codex  found  at  Mount 
Sinai  stands  in  the  lead :  it  contains  the  New 
Testament   complete,  while    the  Vatican    Codex 

1  Mrs,  Lewis  in  her  journal  published  in  the  volume  "  How  the 
Codex  was  Found,"  that  is,  the  new  codex  of  the  Gospels  in  Syriac, 
repeats  that  Tischendorf  got  the  Sinaitic  manuscript  "  not  without 
guile,"  and  that  his  success  has  left  to  this  day  unpleasant  remem- 
brances and  suspicions  in  the  minds  of  the  brotherhood  ;  and  even 
Prof.  J.  Rendel  Harris  in  his  "  Biblical  Fragments  from  Mt.  Sinai," 
p.  4,  writes  :  "  In  1857,  ihe  Sinaitic  Codex  was  still  lying  in  its 
time-honored  retreat,  where  in  fact  it  would  be  to-day,  if  the  ordinary 
conventions  concerning  the  rights  of  property  had  been  scrupulously 
regarded."  But  Prof.  C.  R.  Gregory,  in  his  Prolegomena  to  Tischen- 
dorfs  N.  T.  (Part  I.,  p.  351),  gives  the  letters  from  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment and  from  the  archbishop  and  representative  brethren  of  the 
monks  themselves,  which  establish  the  truth  as  we  have  presented  it 
above. 


^> 


192  THfi;   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

has  suffered  many  mutilations.  It  is  indeed  won- 
derful that  a  discovery,  the  whole  history  of  which 
covers  a  period  of  at  least  fifteen  years,  should 
have  resulted  so  happily  at  last,  that  not  mere 
fragments,  but  a  noble  volume  brings  its  testi- 
mony to  the  text  of  the  Christian  Scriptures. 
The  finding  of  the  codex  was  a  great  achieve- 
ment of  man  ;  its  preservation  a  marked  provi- 
dence of  God. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  the  first  Christian  em- 
peror, Constantine,  commanded  Busebius  to  have 
prepared  fifty  splendid  copies  of  the  Greek  Script- 
ures, which  he  might  present  to  the  principal 
churches  and  monasteries  of  Christendom.  The 
finest  materials  were  to  be  used  and  only  the  best 
workmen  were  to  be  employed ;  and  when  the 
volumes  were  completed  they  were  to  be  trans- 
ported from  Csesarea  to  Constantinople  in  govern- 
ment wagons  under  strong  escort.  These  manu- 
scripts were  inspected  by  the  emperor  himself,  and 
then  distributed  according  to  his  original  purpose. 
It  has  been  believed  by  some,  and  it  is  said  that 
Tischendorf  was  at  one  time  among  the  number, 
that  the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican  codices  may  have 
been,  if  not  of  the  original  copies  made  by  the 
royal  command,  yet  only  one  remove  from  them. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  quite  certain  that  both 
these  manuscripts  came  from  an  antiquity  which 
would  make  such  origin  possible.    The  differences 


THE  TWO  OLDEST  GREEK  MANUSCRIPTS     1 93 

in  their  text,  however,  seem  to  show  that  they  are 
not  so  intimately  related  to  each  other ;  and 
though  Tischendorf  gave  it  as  his  decided  opinion, 
that  the  two  manuscripts  are  not  only  of  about  the 
same  age  with  the  greater  antiquity,  if  there  is 
any  difference,  on  the  side  of  the  Sinaitic  Codex,  but 
that  the  same  scribe  who  wrote  B  is  one  of  the 
four  who  wrote  K  ;  other  scholars  doubt  the  latter 
conclusion.  ]\Iany,  as  Tregelles,  Scrivener,  and 
Westcott  and  Hort  believe  that  B  is  somewhat 
older  than  >^,  and  the  last  named  editors  give  the 
preference  in  general  to  its  readings,  while  they 
consider  the  agreement  of  the  two  documents  of 
prime  authority. 


R 


XII 

THE  GREAT  UNCIALS    OF   THE    FIFTH    CENTURY 


T 


^EN  manuscripts  dating  from  the  fifth  century 
are  extant,  known  as  follows  : 

Codex  Alexandrinus,  sign  A. 

Codex  Ephraemi,  sign  C. 

Codex  Guelpherbytanus  B,  sign  Q. 

Codex  Borgianus  I. ,  sign  T. 

Codex  Woidii,  sign  T^°^ 

Codex  Tischendorfianus  II.,  sign  V'  ^'  ^ 

Codex  Musei  Britannici,  sign  I^ 

Codex  Porfirianus  Chiovensis,  sign  Q^  °'  ^ 


Of  these  codices,  with  the  exception  of  A  and 
C,  little  need  be  said  in  this  chapter.  Q  is  a 
palimpsest  consisting  of  only  thirteen  leaves,  con- 
taining two  hundred  and  thirty-five  verses  of  lyuke 
and  John.  T  is  a  fragment  containing  one 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  verses  from  the  same 
Gospels.  T"^"',  a  distinct  manuscript  but  very 
similar  to  T,  has  also  parts  of  the  third  and 
fourth  Gospels.  I  represents  seven  different 
fragments  of  palimpsests,  of  which  the  first  three 
belong  to  this  century,  and  the  others  to  the  sixth 
194 


,*<^«,,      ^   •      '>!  '^-^ 


"''Wt 

I 

,                  !               ;      i 

S  .9  S 

S  PQ  4) 

"^  fan 

J  'S  ^ 


0.S 


GREAT  UNCIALS  OF   FIFTH  CENTURY       1 95 

and  seventh.  P,  in  the  British  Museum,  con- 
sists of  four  leaves  of  a  volume  brought  from  the 
Nitrian  desert,  a  palimpsest  in  which  passages 
from  the  fourth  Gospel  are  written  over  with 
hymns  of  Severus  in  Syriac.  Qp"'^^  ^^  ^j^^ 
library  of  Archibishop  Porfiri  of  St.  Petersburg,  is 
a  papyrus  document  containing  a  few  fragments 
of  I  Cor.  I  :  6,  7.  All  of  these  codices  are  of  im- 
portance, but  the  two  great  manuscripts  of  this 
century  are  A  and  C. 

The  Alexandrine  manuscript  A,  as  already  re- 
marked upon  a  previous  page,  is  of  special  interest 
as  the  first  of  all  the  great  codices  which  was  crit- 
ically studied  and  applied  to  the  correction  of  the 
received  text.  It  was  presented  to  Charles  I.,  in 
1628,  by  Cyril  Lucar,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
who  brought  it  from  Egypt.  When  the  British 
Museum  was  established  in  1753,  it  was  sent  im- 
mediately to  this  depository  from  the  Royal  col- 
lection, and  it  may  be  seen  there  to-day,  preserved 
in  a  glass  case  with  the  leaves  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment open  for  inspection,  though  no  hand  is 
allowed  to  touch  it  except  in  rare  instances  and 
for  the  purposes  of  scholarly  investigation.  It  is 
in  four  volumes,  the  last  containing  the  New  Tes- 
tament with  many  defects,  beginning  only  with 
the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  at  ver.  6  ; 
and  the  others,  the  Septuagint  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.    At   the   close  of  the  New  Testament  is 


196       the:  parchments  of  thk  faith 

appended  a  work  of  rare  value,  for  a  long  time  the 
only  extant  copy  of  the  earliest  of  the  Apostolic 
Fathers,  the  Epistle  of  Clement  of  Rome  to  the 
Corinthians,  together  with  a  fragment  of  a  second 
epistle,  whose  authorship  is  more  doubtful. 

As  to  the  exact  origin  of  this  manuscript  noth- 
ing can  be  positively  determined,  except  that  it  is 
Egyptian  and  probably  Alexandrian.  Notes  upon 
the  volumes  assert  that  a  Saint  Thecla  copied  the 
whole  with  her  own  hand,  but  this  is  not  likely 
for  various  reasons ;  and  the  supposition  of  Tre- 
gelles  is  probably  correct,  that  this  legend  of  its 
origin  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  first  remaining 
page  of  the  New  Testament  held  the  appointed 
lesson  in  the  Greek  church  for  the  festival  of  St. 
Thecla,  for  this  Scripture  is  in  the  twenty-fifth 
chapter  of  Matthew  ;  and  perhaps  the  saint's  name 
may  once  have  been  written  at  the  top  of  the 
page,  for  the  margins  have  been  somewhat  nar- 
rowed in  the  binding,  and  the  name  may  thus 
have  disappeared. 

The  vellum  of  this  ancient  book  is  well  pre- 
served, though  in  many  places  age  has  crumbled 
the  leaves.  The  letters  of  the  text  are  larger, 
rounder,  and  more  elegant  uncials  than  those  of 
the  Vatican  Codex.  There  are  no  spaces  between 
the  words,  no  accents  or  breathings,  and  but  few 
cases  of  punctuation  or  abbreviation.  The  text  is 
divided  into  sections,  however,  which  are  noted  in 


GREAT  UNCIALS  OF   FIFTH  CENTURY       1 97 

the  margin.  This  is  the  oldest  manuscript  with 
capital  letters  by  the  first  hand.  In  several 
places  at  the  beginning  of  books  the  first  line  is 
written  in  vermillion.  Each  page  has  two  columns, 
each  of  fifty  lines,  with  about  twenty  letters  to  the 
line.  The  first  seven  verses  of  John's  Gospel  put 
into  corresponding  English  would  present  an  ap- 
pearance as  follows,  serving  to  illustrate  the  large 
initials,  and  also  a  singular  way  in  which  a  new 
section  is  marked  by  a  break  in  the  middle  of  a 
line,  the  first  letter  of  the  next  line  being  large, 
like  an  initial,  though  it  occurs  in  the  middle  of  a 
word.  Several  contractions  also  occur,  marked 
by  the  horizontal  line  drawn  over  the  letters. 

1 NTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEVVORD  AND 
THEWORDWASWITHGD  -ANDGDWAS 
THEWORD  -HEWASINTHEBEGINNING 
WITHGDAIvETHINGSBYHIMWERE 
MADE  •  ANDWITHOUTHIMWASM  ADE 
NOTONETHINGTHATWASMADEINHIM 
LIFEWAS-ANDTHELIFEWASTHE 
LIGHTOFMNANDTHEIvIGHTlNTHE 
DARKNESSSHINETH-ANDTHEDARK 

RNESSITNOTCOMPREHENDED  THE 

EWASAMNSENTFROMGDTHENAMEOF 
HIMWASJOHN  -THISONECAME 
FORAWITNESSTHATHEMIGHTWIT 
NESSCONCERNINGTHEIvIGHT- 


198         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   EAlTH 

The  principal  editions  of  this  manuscript  are 
that  of  Woide  in  1786,  and  a  splendid  autotype 
fac  simile  in  1879-80,  from  which  our  illustration, 
page  138,  is  reduced. 

By  far  the  most  important  of  the  biblical  pal- 
impsests is  the  Codex  C,  or  the  Codex  of  Eph- 
raem  the  Syrian,  now  deposited  in  the  National 
I/ibrary  at  Paris.  Some  time  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury the  volume  was  first  made,  containing  prob- 
ably the  whole  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
Where  the  book  was  used  and  how  cared  for  none 
may  now  tell,  though  it  was  doubtless  made  in 
Egypt,  and  the  hands  of  revisers  indicate  that  it 
was  long  in  Alexandria,  or  in  the  possession  of 
some  one  who  had  been  educated  in  the  Alexan- 
drian schools.  In  the  twelfth,  perhaps  the  thir- 
teenth, century  the  writing  was  erased  with  a 
sponge,  and  in  its  place  several  works  of  Ephraem, 
a  bishop  and  celebrated  preacher  who  lived  at 
Edessa  in  the  fourth  century,  were  written  upon 
the  vellum.  For  this  purpose  the  leaves  were  taken 
without  any  reference  to  their  original  positions 
in  the  biblical  volume.  It  resulted  that  when 
the  older  writing  began  to  appear  again  it  was 
found  to  be  in  a  most  confused  state.  There  were 
large  omissions  of  the  sacred  text ;  passages  widely 
separated  in  the  Scripture  were  found  in  juxta- 
position ;  leaves  were  often  upside  down.  The 
book  as  it  now  exists  contains  two  hundred  and 


GREAT  UNCIALS  OF   FIFTH   CENTURY       1 99 

forty-nine  leaves  in  all,  one  hundred  and  forty-five 
of  which  belong  to  the  New  Testament.  But  the 
whole  of  the  second  Epistle  of  John,  the  whole 
of  the  second  Epistle  of  Paul  to  the  Thessalonians, 
thirty-seven  chapters  of  the  Gospels,  ten  of  the 
Acts,  forty-two  of  the  Epistles,  and  eight  of  the 
Revelation  are  wanting.  But  the  text  which  re- 
mains ranks  high  as  a  critical  authority,  and  the 
manuscript  is  one  of  the  greatest  literary  treasures 
of  Christendom. 

The  book  was  first  brought  to  Europe  by  Johan- 
nes lyascaris,  who  had  devoted  much  toil  to  the 
examination  of  libraries  in  the  East.  From  his 
collection,  after  he  died  at  Rome  in  1535,  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Nicola  Ridolfi,  of  Flo- 
rence, and  then,  with  his  whole  library,  it  was 
bought  by  Pietro  Strozzi.  Then  the  famous  fam- 
ily of  the  Medici  added  it  to  their  treasures,  and 
it  was  carried  by  Catharine  de  Medici  to  France, 
that  she  might  regale  her  spiritual  life  upon  the 
sermons  of  Ephraem,  which  it  contained.  All 
this  time  the  existence  of  the  older  and  more 
precious  writing  remained  unsuspected  ;  but  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Peter 
Allix,  a  careful  student  working  in  the  Royal 
I/ibrary,  to  which  the  book  had  been  transferred, 
thought  he  saw  traces  of  a  text  beneath  that  of 
Ephraem.  It  was  very  faint,  but  closer  investi- 
gation  proved   it   to   be  there.       The   discovery 


200         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

caused  much  interest  among  scholars.  Several 
passages  were  deciphered  and  were  used  in  the 
reprint  of  Mill's  Greek  Testament,  which  ap- 
peared in  1710.  In  1830,  Ivachmann,  a  celebrated 
German  critic,  said  that  if  any  Parisian  had  the 
courage  for  the  task,  he  could  immortalize  his 
name  by  deciphering  and  publishing  the  text  of 
this  Codex.  Capperonier,  a  former  head  of  the 
library  had  declared  that  no  mortal  could  read  the 
old  writing.  In  1834,  a  chemical  preparation 
known  as  the  Giobertine  Tincture  was  applied  to 
about  one  hundred  leaves,  bringing  out  the  writ- 
ing somewhat  more  clearly,  but  spotting  the  pages 
badly.  After  this  was  done  a  critic  named  Fleck 
succeeded  in  reading  many  pages  hitherto  unde- 
cipherable. But  in  1840,  Tischendorf  went  to 
Paris  and  applied  himself  to  the  work  with  his 
characteristic  skill,  energy,  and  perseverance. 
From  December  of  that  year  to  September  of 
1 84 1  he  worked  assiduously,  and  in  December 
of  1842  the  results  were  published.  The  great 
scholar  had  been  successful  in  reading  almost 
every  word.^  and  he  had  noted  even  the  revisions 
of  the  manuscript,  announcing  that  no  less  than 
four  hands  had  been  employed  to  bring  the  text 
to  its  present  condition,  though  the  work  of  the 
fourth  was  very  rare.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  of 
Tischendorf 's  great  achievements,  and  the  work  has 
added  largely  to  our  knowledge  of  the  sacred  text. 


XIII 

A  CORRUPT  CODEX  AND   AN   ILI^USTRATED   MAN- 
USCRIPT 

(Sixth  Century) 

WITH  the  sixth  century  the  number  of  the  uncial 
manuscripts  increases  to  twenty- four ;  then 
in  the  two  following  centuries  it  falls  off  somewhat 
strangely  to  nine  in  the  seventh  and  eight  in  the 
eighth ;  in  the  ninth  century  the  number  rises 
again  to  thirty-four  ;  but  in  the  tenth  it  is  dimin- 
ished to  six.  Very  many  of  these  manuscripts  are 
mere  fragments.  Of  those  of  the  sixth  century 
two  of  considerable  importance  are  selected  for 
description  in  this  chapter,  one  especially  inter- 
esting on  account  of  its  many  interpolations  ;  the 
other  as  being  the  earliest  illustrated  manuscript 
extant. 

Codex  Bezae,  or  D,  is  known  also  as  the  Co- 
dex Cantabrigiensis,  because  Beza,  its  discoverer, 
presented  it  to  the  University  of  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, where  it  is  now  the  chief  treasure  of  the 
library.  Theodore  Beza  was  a  man  eminent  in 
the  sixteenth  century  as   a   preacher,   professor, 


202  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

and  reformer.  Karly  in  his  career  he  was  ban- 
ished with  other  Protestants  from  France,  but 
afterward  he  returned  and  among  the  attendants 
of  Coligni  became  widely  known  as  a  man  of 
learning.  In  1562,  he  obtained  this  manuscript 
from  a  monastery  in  Ivyons.  It  has  been  conject- 
ured that  it  was  rescued  from  the  flames  when  the 
city  was  sacked  by  the  Huguenots  under  the  Baron 
of  Adrets,  and  that  its  preserver  gave  it  to  Beza, 
as  at  once  a  token  of  esteem  and  a  compliment  to 
his  learning.  Beza  collated  portions  of  the  Codex 
for  his  own  use,  but  in  1581  transferred  it  to  the 
university,  where  it  is  now  treasured. 

Codex  Bezae  dates  from  the  sixth  century, 
though  some  have  thought  it  should  be  placed  in 
the  fifth.  It  is  thus  of  much  importance  in  text- 
ual criticism.  It  is  a  large  quarto  volume  of  four 
hundred  and  fifteen  leaves,  now  very  elegantly 
bound.  Originally  there  were  five  hundred  and 
twelve  leaves.  Nine  of  the  leaves  preserved  do 
not  belong  to  the  original  volume,  but  are  as  late 
as  the  tenth  century.  The  Codex  contains  the 
Gospels  and  the  Acts  with  omissions,  and  the 
order  of  the  Gospels  is  Matthew,  John,  lyuke,  and 
Mark.  The  text  is  composed  of  square  upright 
uncials  in  a  single  column  upon  the  left  hand 
page,  while  a  L^atin  translation,  by  the  same  hand 
which  wrote  the  Greek,  occupies  the  right  hand 
page.   There  are  no  spaces,  accents,  or  breathings ; 


A  CORRUPT   CODEX  203 

but  punctuation  appears  more  frequently  in  the 
I^atin  than  in  the  Greek.  This  manuscript  affords 
a  good  example  of  stichometrical  writing — the 
text  being  so  arranged  that  only  a  few  words 
are  contained  in  each  line,  to  assist  the  reader  in 
pronunciation  and  in  dividing  the  text  according 
to  the  sense  with  more  ease  than  when  the  words 
have  no  spaces  between  them. 

This  manuscript  is  the  oldest  which  contains 
the  passage  relating  the  story  of  the  woman  taken 
in  adultery  (John  7  :  53-8  :  11).  The  Canterbury 
Revision  puts  this  passage  in  brackets,  with  the 
note  that  most  of  the  ancient  authorities  omit  it, 
while  those  which  contain  it  vary  much  from  each 
other.  But  that  it  appears  in  this  codex  is  evi- 
dence of  an  extremely  early  origin  for  the  story 
and  its  incorporation  in  the  Gospel,  though  doubt- 
less it  was  not  written  by  the  inspired  author. 
The  Acts  contain  no  less  than  six  hundred  inter- 
polations, more  or  less  extensive.  In  the  second 
Gospel  one  passage  occurs  only  in  this  codex,  fol- 
lowing Luke  6  :  4,  on  the  leaf  usually  kept  open 
at  Cambridge  for  the  inspection  of  visitors.  It 
runs  thus : 

* '  On  the  same  day  he  beheld  a  certain  man 
working  on  the  Sabbath,  and  said  unto  him,  Man, 
blessed  art  thou  if  thou  knowest  what  thou  doest, 
but  if  thou  knowest  not,  thou  art  cursed  and  a 
transgressor  of  the  law." 


204  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

"I  was  present,"  says  Dr.  Scrivener,  "when 
this  passage  was  shown  at  Cambridge  to  a  learned 
Greek  Archimandrite,  Philippos  Schulati,  of  Kus- 
tandje.  He  had  never  heard  either  of  it  or  of  the 
manuscript  before,  but  after  a  moment's  thought 
his  comment  was  ready :  '  This  cannot  be ;  the 
lyord  cursed  no  man.'  " 

Codex  Bezae  is  known  by  the  sign  D.  The 
same  letter  is  also  applied  to  a  copy  of  Paul's 
Epistles,  No.  107  of  the  National  I^ibrary  in  Paris, 
called  the  Codex  Claromontanus,  from  Clermont 
in  the  north  of  France,  where  it  was  discovered 
by  Beza  twenty  years  after  the  more  famous  man- 
uscript, so  often  called  by  his  own  name,  came 
into  his  possession. 

An  extremely  interesting  manuscript  of  the 
sixth  century  is  the  superb  codex  discovered  by  the 
German  scholars,  Oscar  von  Gebhardt,  of  Gottin- 
gen,  and  Adolph  Harnack,  now  of  Berlin,  who  were 
pursuing  researches  in  the  interest  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Leipzig,  already  so  rich  in  ancient  docu- 
ments through  the  labors  of  Tischendorf  and 
others.  They  were  on  their  way,  in  March  of  the 
year  1879,  ^^  ^^^  island  of  Sicily,  when  they 
diverged  from  their  course  to  visit  the  little  town 
of  Rossano,  a  few  miles  from  the  shore  of  the  Gulf 
of  Taranto,  which  sets  up  into  the  southern  coast 
of  Italy.  They  hoped  to  find  traces  of  certain 
writings  of  Hippolytus  and  others,  which   had 


A   CORRUPT  CODEX  205 

been  reckoned  among  the  treasures  of  the  convent 
that  had  formerly  stood  just  outside  the  town.  In 
this  respect,  however,  they  were  doomed  to  dis- 
appointment. No  one  could  show  them  any  such 
books  ;  no  one  could  tell  them  of  libraries  where 
they  might  be  hidden. 

Finally,  they  received  a  hint  of  a  certain  an- 
cient volume  that  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
Archbishop.  They  immediately  proceeded  to  the 
episcopal  residence,  where  they  were  courteously 
received,  and  their  request  to  see  the  book  was 
cordially  granted.  Conducted  to  the  library,  they 
were  shown  a  thick  quarto  volume  in  a  stout 
binding  of  black  leather.  Monsignor  Pietro 
Cilento,  the  archbishop,  laid  it  before  them  and 
opened  it,  turning  leaf  after  leaf.  What  was  their 
amazement  to  see  that  it  was  an  elegant  purple 
manuscript  of  the  Gospels,  with  double  columns 
of  silver  text  upon  each  page,  the  fii^st  three  lines 
of  each  Gospel  written  in  gold,  and  with  a  large 
number  of  miniatures,  or  illustrations,  interspersed, 
still  preserving  the  rich  and  vivid  colors.  It  was 
evidently  of  the  sixth  centur>',  or,  at  the  latest, 
the  early  part  of  the  seventh.  Doctors  Gebhardt 
and  Harnack  begged  permission  to  study  the 
volume  at  length,  and  they  devoted  several  weeks 
of  residence  at  Rossano  to  collating  the  text  and 
making  fac  similes  of  the  pages  for  future  publi- 
cation.    Upon  their  return  to  Leipzig  they  issued 


2o6  THK   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

a  thin  quarto  containing  a  description  of  the 
volume,  the  circumstances  attending  its  preserva- 
tion and  discovery,  and  tracings  of  many  of  its 
plates.     They  gave  it  the  sign  I. 

The  Codex  Rossanensis  has  one  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  leaves  of  vellum,  containg  the  whole 
of  the  first  Gospel,  and  all  of  Mark's  to  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  verse  of  the  last  chapter.  It 
cannot  be  determined  how  much  Scripture  was 
originally  contained  in  the  volume,  though  it  is 
likely  that  it  had  the  Gospels  complete.  It  now 
contains,  in  addition  to  Matthew  and  Mark,  an 
epistle  of  Busebius  to  Carpianus,  the  chirography 
showing  that  it  was  not  written  by  the  same  hand 
as  the  biblical  portion.  As  already  remarked,  the 
document  is  of  only  secondary  importance  for  the 
criticism  of  the  text  of  the  New  Testament,  since 
it  agrees  mainly  with  the  manuscripts  of  the  fifth 
and  later  centuries,  rather  than  with  those  of  the 
fourth.  The  discoverers  state  that  the  text  is  an 
agreement,  to  a  surprising  degree,  with  that  of 
Codex  N,  which  is  mentioned  below,  that  other 
purple  manuscript  written  in  silver  and  gold, 
which  was  the  most  important  of  all  thus  adorned 
until  this  treasure-trove  came  to  light  at  Rossano. 

This  manuscript  is  the  earliest  but  one  to  con- 
tain the  words  at  the  close  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in 
Matt.  6  :  14  :  "  For  thine  is  the  kingdom  and  the 
power  and  the  glory,  forever.  Amen. ' '     See,  how- 


A   CORRUPT  CODEX  207 

ever,  page  278  of  this  book  for  earlier  evidence  of 
this  doxology. 

But  the  remarkable  pictures  in  this  volume 
make  it  of  the  greatest  interest  not  only  to  the 
art-historian,  but  even  to  the  casual  reader.  In 
the  book  published  at  lycipzig,  by  the  discoverers, 
after  two  purple  plates  showing  passages  of  the 
text  in/ac  simile^  and  certain  signs  of  contractions 
and  marginal  helps  to  the  reading,  seventeen  out- 
line plates  follow,  showing  the  title-page  to  the 
whole  volume,  an  ornamental  circle  enclosing 
miniatures  of  the  four  evangelists,  and  also  the 
title-page  to  the  second  Gospel.  If  we  take  ex- 
amples of  the  pictures,  we  may  speak  especially 
of  the  entry  into  Jerusalem,  with  the  Saviour 
seated  upon  the  ass,  the  people  strewing  clothing 
and  palms  in  the  way,  one  man  still  up  in  the 
palm  tree  gathering  the  boughs,  and  on  the  ex- 
treme right,  the  city  of  Jerusalem  with  the  people 
leaning  forth  from  w^indows  and  towers  and  the 
children  singing  hosannas  before  the  gate.  Another 
plate  shows  Judas  carrying  back  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver  to  the  two  high  priests,  while  in  the  sa^ne 
picture^  at  the  extreme  right,  the  same  traitor  is 
seen  hanging  from  the  bough  of  a  tree.  This 
synchronous  method  of  representing  consecutive 
actions  is  also  employed  in  the  plate  which  shows 
the  agony  in  Gethsemane,  for  at  the  right  the 
Saviour  bows  in  prayer  alone,  and  at  the  left  he 


208         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

is  waking  the  three  disciples  from  their  sleep. 
Two  plates  show  the  method  in  which  the  I^ord's 
Supper  was  administered  in  the  sixth  century,  the 
disciples  going  in  procession  to  receive  the  ele- 
ments from  the  I^ord's  hands,  while  another  plate 
gives  the  original  form  with  the  whole  company- 
reclining  upon  couches  around  a  semi-circular 
table,  Judas  reaching  forth  his  hand  to  fulfill  the 
lyord's  word,  "  Whosoever  dippeth  with  me  in  the 
dish,  the  same  shall  betray  me."  The  cleansing 
of  the  temple  gives  us  an  interesting  indication  of 
the  date  of  the  manuscript,  for  the  rude  sketch 
of  the  temple,  hardly  more  than  a  mere  shed, 
gives  a  composite  structure  in  which  two  of  the 
columns  are  Doric,  and  the  third  a  perfect  instance 
of  the  Corinthian.  The  artist  must  have  had  be- 
fore his  eye  those  churches,  of  which  some  ex- 
amples are  yet  to  be  seen  in  Italy,  that  had  drawn 
upon  the  ruins  of  the  old  heathen  temples  for 
their  adornment.  As  lyiibke  has  shown  in  his 
history  of  art,  this  heterogeneous  architecture, 
growing  out  of  poverty  of  such  materials,  belongs 
to  a  comparatively  late  date.  The  earlier  attempts 
to  change  the  old  basilicas  into  churches,  and  to 
construct  new  buildings  like  them,  found  a  great 
wealth  of  spoils  from  the  ruined  heathen  temples, 
which  enabled  the  builders  to  use,  for  instance, 
all  Doric  or  all  Corinthian  pillars  in  the  same 
colonnade.     But  ''  the  later  the  date,  the  poorer, 


"mm, 


:pi>0--ij^ 


w  t 


¥^-. 


m 


-••^^js  J 


Jesus  Cleansing  the  Temple  and  The  Good  Samaritan. 
^From  the  Codex  Rossanensis.  > 


Page  2C 


A   CORRUPT  CODKX  209 

ruder,  and  more  heterogeneous  they  become," 
and  the  same  arcade  exhibits  the  most  varied 
styles  and  materials  crowded  together.  It  is  evi- 
dent, therefore,  that  this  picture  must  have  been 
drawn  after  this  kind  of  architecture  had  become 
known,  and  no  matter  how  early  the  text  of 
this  codex  must  be  placed,  this  one  picture 
would  be  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  artist 
who  illuminated  the  volume  must  have  done  his 
work  at  a  period  approximate  to  the  date  assigned 
by  the  discoverers.  Text  and  plates  agree  in 
marking  the  time  at  which  the  book  was  made. 

We  have  chosen  for  our  reproduction  of  these 
outlines  two  plates,  the  one  showing  the  cleansing 
of  the  temple  to  which  reference  has  just  been 
made.  The  other  illustrates  the  parable  of  the 
good  Samaritan,  and  is  an  instance  of  the  double 
picture.  The  good  Samaritan,  evidently  con- 
ceived by  the  artist  to  be  the  Saviour  himself,  is 
ministering  to  the  wounded  man,  and  an  angel  is 
introduced  to  assist  him.  Then  in  the  right-hand 
part  of  the  picture  the  concluding  part  of  the 
parable  is  depicted ;  the  rescued  man  is  sitting 
upon  the  ass,  and  the  rescuer  is  paying  the  money 
into  the  hand  of  the  inn-keeper.  The  art  is  rude 
both  in  conception  and  execution  but  the  meaning 
of  the  pictures  appears  at  once. 

Shortly  after  the  discovery  of  the  Codex  Ros- 
sanensis    a   rumor  went    abroad   that  a   similar 


210         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

document  had  been  discovered,  and  in  1881  an 
account  of  it  was  published  by  the  Abbe  Duchesne 
in  the  ''''Bulletin  Critique ^^^  of  Paris.  The  new 
manuscript  proved  to  be  indeed  very  similar  to 
the  one  found  at  Rossano.  It  contained  the  Gos- 
pels of  Matthew  and  Mark,  and  was  written  in 
silver  letters  upon  purple  vellum.  The  Abb^ 
Duchesne  had  learned  of  the  existence  of  this  book 
while  he  was  in  the  Isle  of  Patmos  studying  a  few 
important  leaves  of  another  purple  codex,  and 
upon  his  return  to  Europe  he  sent  another  scholar, 
M.  Pierre  BatifFol,  to  find  it  if  he  could.  It  was 
found  at  Berat  in  the  interior  of  Albania,  and  is 
in  the  possession  of  the  Archbishop  Anthimus 
Alexoudis,  who  had  written  an  account  of  it  pre- 
vious to  its  announcement  to  European  scholars. 
It  has  been  given  the  sign  ^.  M.  Batifibl  as- 
signs the  codex  to  the  sixth  century,  but  Prof.  J. 
R.  Harris  thinks  the  date  too  early  by  perhaps  a 
century,  which  may  also  be  the  case,  he  thinks,  with 
the  Codex  Rossanensis.  This  new  codex  has  a 
text  of  much  higher  character  than  I^  and  be- 
longs probably  to  the  so-called  Ferrar  group  of 
manuscripts,  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  de- 
rived from  a  common  lost  original  of  great  value. 
Occasionally  it  adds  a  considerable  passage  which 
has  only  survived  in  a  few  other  very  ancient  and 
rich  authorities,  like  Codex  Bezae,  or  the  Cu- 
retonian  Syriac,  and  it  is  thus  seen  to  be  of  great 


A   CORRUPT  CODEX  211 

importance.  It  belongs  to  the  Church  of  St. 
George  at  Berat.  Like  the  Codex  Rossanensis, 
it  has  two  cohimns  to  a  page,  with  seventeen  lines 
to  a  column.  Tables  of  chapters,  and  Eusebian 
and  Ammonian  sections  are  marked  in  the  usual 
way.  It  is  not  complete  even  in  the  two  Gospels 
it  contains,  for  it  begins  with  Matthew  6  :  3  and 
ends  with  Mark  14  :  62.  Other  manuscripts  were 
also  found  at  Berat :  a  fine  cursive  of  the  eleventh 
century,  containing  the  Gospels  ;  another  cursive 
of  the  Gospels,  of  the  twelfth  century  ;  a  splendid 
purple  manuscript  of  the  Gospels,  with  gold  let- 
ters, the  writing  in  a  single  column  to  a  page  and 
upon  four  hundred  and  thirteen  leaves,  probably 
dating  from  the  tenth  century.  Two  other  fine 
cursives  were  also  found  by  i\I.  Batiffol.  ' '  Six 
new  manuscripts  in  all,  and  one  of  them — a 
lion  ! ' '  How  many  more  may  yet  remain  hidden 
in  this  distant  region,  who  may  say  ? 

After  the  sixth  century,  many  documents  of  much 
importance  are  extant.  One  such  codex  as  the  fa- 
mous L,  of  the  eighth  century,  the  Codex  Regius, 
is  royal  indeed,  though  of  rude  workmanship  and 
much  injured  by  use.  ''  By  far  the  most  remark- 
able document  of  its  age  and  class,"  says  Scriv- 
ener of  it,  and  its  authority  is  high  among  the 
witnesses  to  the  text.  But  other  manuscripts  must 
be  passed  in  silence,  except  as  very  peculiar  char- 
acteristics are  to  be  noticed. 


XIV 

CURIOUS   FRAGMENTS  AND  DISCOVERIES 

THE  ignorance  and  carelessness  of  some  of  the 
custodians  of  these  documents  in  the  monas- 
teries of  the  Bast  can  hardly  be  credited.  It  has 
already  been  narrated  how  the  invaluable  Codex 
Sinai ticus  was  barely  saved  from  the  flames  at 
St.  Catherine's,  and  the  practice  of  washing  out 
the  ink  to  replace  the  older  text  with  a  new  one 
in  the  palimpsests  shows  the  same  lack  of  appre- 
ciation of  the  value  of  the  documents.  Many 
pages  might  be  written  detailing  similar  careless- 
ness, and  showing  the  skill  that  in  later  times  has 
discovered  and  rescued  valuable  treasures,  but 
only  a  few  instances  can  be  given  here. 

The  Codex  N,  or  the  Purple  Manuscript,  as 
it  is  called,  because  for  a  long  time  it  was  the  most 
important  text  in  our  possession  written  upon  pur- 
ple vellum,  is  in  four  parts.  Many  manuscripts 
have  been  discovered  thus  made  of  beautifully 
dyed  skins,  and  with  the  text  in  silver  letters. 
Codex  N  has  the  names  of  the  deity,  wherever 
they  occur,  written  in  gold,  but  the  main  body  of 
the  text,  which  was  once  silver,  is  now  turned 
black  with  age.     Coming  down  to  us  from  the 


CURIOUS  FRAGMENTS  AND  DISCOVERIES     2 13 

latter  part  of  the  sixth  century,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  it  has  suffered  dilapidation  in  the  long  inter- 
val. Four  leaves  found  their  way  at  an  early  day 
into  the  British  Museum,  and  were  collated  by 
Wetstein  on  his  visit  to  England  in  17 15.  Six 
leaves  belong  to  the  Vatican  Library,  and  were 
first  published  in  full  by  Tischendorf  in  1846,  and 
were  shown  by  him  to  belong  to  the  same  manu- 
script. Two  leaves  had  long  been  known  in 
Vienna,  and  had  received  attention  from  several 
scholars,  who  had  published  imperfect  collations 
of  the  fragment.  In  or  about  the  year  1864,  Sakke- 
lion  discovered  at  the  monastery  of  St.  John,  in 
Patmos,  thirty-three  other  leaves  containing  parts 
of  Mark's  Gospel,  and  clearly  belonging  to  the 
same  document.  Probably  the  fewer  leaves  so 
widely  scattered  in  London,  Vienna,  and  Rome, 
were  stolen  from  Patmos,  and  had  been  hastily 
disposed  of  by  the  thief  as  his  opportunities  oc- 
curred. The  Abb^  Duchesne,  already  referred 
to  as  the  discoverer  of  the  Purple  Manuscript 
Beratinus,  was  in  Patmos  studying  this  Codex  N 
when  he  was  first  told  of  Beratinus.  There  he 
collated  the  fragments  discovered  in  1864,  render- 
ing an  invaluable  assistance  to  our  knowledge  of 
Codex  Purpureus  by  these  labors,  so  that  now 
these  widely  separated  fragments  are  as  well 
understood  as  if  they  were  united  in  their  original 
form. 


214         I^HB  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Another  instance  that  bears  tribute  to  the  skill 
of  modern  scholarship  is  the  identification  of  two 
fragments  as  parts  of  one  document,  though  sep- 
arated by  the  distance  between  lyondon  and  Ham- 
burg. Two  folio  leaves  containing  parts  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  written  in  bright  red 
ink,  whence  they  were  called  the  Codex  Ruber, 
or  Red  Manuscript,  M^,  were  in  the  Public  lyi- 
brary  of  Hamburg.  There  the  great  scholar  Gries- 
bach  became  acquainted  with  them.  In  the  British 
Museum,  among  the  Harleian  collection,  was  a 
volume  of  comparatively  little  value,  and  in  the 
preparation  of  this  volume  some  ancient  vellum 
had  been  used  for  fly-leaves.  When  Griesbach 
visited  I^ondon,  he  at  once  recognized  these  fly- 
leaves, covered  with  the  peculiar  red  writing,  as 
fellows  of  the  Codex  M^  upon  the  continent.  He 
collated  them  and  published  the  results.  They 
contained  parts  of  the  first  and  second  Corinthians, 
making  the  whole  number  of  verses  in  both  frag- 
ments one  hundred  and  ninety-six.  Tischendorf 
afterward  discovered  another  leaf 

Perhaps  the  most  wonderful  exhibition  of  skill 
is  shown  in  the  rescue  of  four  leaves  of  Mark's 
Gospel,  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  These 
leaves  were  in  twenty-seven  different  pieces^  and 
had  been  employed  in  the  binding  of  a  volume  of 
the  works  of  Gres^ory  of  Nazianzus.  The  librarian 
of  the  University,   Mr.    Bradshaw,    detected  the 


^'3 


CURIOUS  FRAGMENTS  AND  DISCOVERIES     215 

true  character  of  the  fragments,  picked  them  out 
of  the  binding,  arranged  them  in  order  between 
sheets  of  glass,  and  so  preserved  to  us  a  valuable 
reading  of  several  verses  of  Mark,  from  the  early 
part  of  the  ninth  century.  This  codex,  W^,  in 
its  present  condition  has  been  photographed  and 
published,  and  our  illustration  shows  two  of  the 
four  leaves  as  they  are  restored.  The  text  is  very 
similar  to  Codices  K,  B,  D,  L,,  J,  and  one  reading, 
Mark  7  :  33,  appears  to  be  unique  :  ' '  He  took  him 
aside  from  the  multitude  privately  and  spat  upon 
his  fingers,  and  put  them  into  the  ears  of  the  deaf 
man,  and  he  touched  the  tongue  of  the  man  of 
thick  speech." 

It  is  not  infrequent  that  the  bindings  of  books 
have  thus  employed  valuable  fragments,  probably 
in  a  multitude  of  cases  eluding  discovery,  and  in 
many  instances  almost  depriving  us  of  them,  but 
yielding  them  up  at  last.  Codex  O,  or  Mosquen- 
sis,  at  Moscow,  is  composed  of  eight  leaves  thus 
used  in  binding  Chrysostom's  "Homilies"  ;  and 
the  Codex  Coislinianus  of  Paul's  epistles,  the 
whole  number  of  leaves  now  known  being  twenty- 
nine,  was  also  rescued  from  the  binding  of  other 
books.  This  codex  is  widely  separated  :  twelve 
leaves  are  in  Paris,  two  at  Moscow,  four  in  one 
library  and  two  in  another  at  St.  Petersburg,  and 
nine  are  at  Mount  Athos. 

Many  other  instances  might  be  given,  but  these 


2l6         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

are  sufficient  to  show  how  ignorant  or  careless  the 
custodians  of  these  documents  were  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  how  skillful  modern  scholarship  is  in 
discovering  and  making  use  of  what  has  been  so 
nearly  lost.  Narratives  are  told  by  travelers  of 
the  strange  confusion  and  neglect  observable  in 
Eastern  monasteries  to-day  where  the  search  for 
valuable  documents  has  been  prosecuted.  A 
scholar/  who  visited  a  convent  in  the  Nitrian 
Desert,  in  Egypt,  was  shown  a  sort  of  vaulted 
cellar,  whose  only  entrance  was  through  a  trap  in 
the  floor  above,  and  the  unlighted  apartment  was 
heaped  with  old  volumes  and  loose  leaves  of  every 
description.  The  monks  gave  him  a  candle  and 
a  stick,  and  he  was  left  to  stir  up  the  rubbish  as 
he  pleased,  pursuing  investigations  which  resulted 
in  the  discovery  of  several  valuable  works  of  vari- 
ous kinds.  Another  traveler,  having  a  curiosity 
to  see  the  monks  at  their  devotions,  was  roused 
early  from  sleep,  and  going  to  the  chapel  found 
its  floor  dotted  at  regular  intervals  with  huge 
books.  Wondering  what  they  could  mean,  he 
was  soon  satisfied  by  seeing  the  bare-footed  monks 
enter  for  their  matins,  each  one  jumping  up  on  a 
book  to  keep  his  feet  from  contact  with  the  cold 
stone  floor  while  he  prayed.  The  traveler  de- 
parted, had  some  warm  hassocks  made  and  sent 

^  Archdeacon  Tattam,  as  more  particularly  related  on  a  later  page, 
the  "  Curetonian  Syriac  Version.' ' 


CURIOUS  FRAGMENTS  AND  DISCOVERIES     21/ 

back  to  the  convent,  for  which  the  monks  were 
quite  wilHng  to  exchano^e  their  ancient  vohiines. 
Still  another  scholar  details  the  rescue  of  certain 
scraps  of  manuscript  which  had  been  kept  only 
to  cover  the  mouths  of  pickle-jars.  With  such 
treatment  the  only  wonder  is  that  so  many 
precious  fragments  have  been  delivered  from 
oblivion,  and  are  now  contributing  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  other  departments 
of  learning. 

Two  other  codices,  of  the  sixth  century,  may 
be  mentioned  merely.     Both  are  palimpsests. 

In  the  year  1847,  about  forty  manuscripts  of  a 
large  number  that  had  been  found  by  Archdeacon 
Tattam  in  the  convents  of  the  Nitrian  Desert,  in 
Egypt,  were  placed  in  the  British  jNIuseum,  and 
were  entrusted  to  the  care  of  a  discerning  scholar, 
the  Rev.  William  Cureton.  One  of  these  docu- 
ments was  discovered  to  be  a  palimpsest  of  much 
importance.  Two  ancient  works  had  been  ex- 
punged for  the  sake  of  providing  vellum  for  a  new 
treatise,  a  work  of  Severus  of  Antioch,  against 
Grammaticus.  The  two  older  works  were  por- 
tions of  the  Iliad  with  a  fragment  of  Euclid,  and 
a  part  of  the  Gospel  of  Luke.  This  fragment  of 
the  Gospel  was  studied  by  Tregelles  and  Tischen- 
dorf,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  the  latter  was 
given  the  sign  R.  Canon  Cureton  published  it  in 
1858,  with  a  translation  and  valuable  notes.     It 


2l8         THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

is  said  that  the  older  text  is  so  very  faint  that  it 
can  only  be  read  upon  a  bright  day,  and  with  a 
very  powerful  lens  to  bnng  out  certain  portions 
that  are  unusually  obscure.  In  some  places  the 
erased  writing  can  only  be  discerned  by  holding 
the  page  between  the  eye  and  the  light,  and 
catching  thus  the  marks  of  the  stylus  where  the 
vellum  was  scratched  by  it  a  little  thinner  than 
elsewhere.  The  detection  of  such  a  text  testifies 
to  the  exceeding  skill  of  the  scholars.  Among 
this  lot  of  manuscripts  were  also  found  the  Syriac 
Gospels,  which  are  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Curetonian  Syriac,  of  which  mention  will  again 
be  made  under  the  head  of  versions. 

The  only  other  palimpsest  of  which  special 
mention  may  here  be  made  is  the  Codex  Dublin- 
ENSiS,  Z.  As  its  name  indicates  it  is  in  Dub- 
lin, in  the  librar}^  of  Trinity  College.  It  contains, 
in  addition  to  a  part  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah 
and  certain  orations  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  a 
large  portion  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew.  Dr. 
Barrett,  a  Fellow  of  the  college,  was  one  day 
examining  the  manuscript  when  he  thought  he 
discerned  very  faint  traces  of  letters  beneath  the 
principal  text.  A  more  careful  inspection  con- 
vinced him  and  others  of  the  truth  of  his  dis- 
covery, and  after  long  study  Dr.  Barrett  published 
an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  portion  in  1801. 
The  work  was   unsatisfactory,  however,  and   in 


CURIOUS  FRAGMENTS  AND  DISCO VKRIES     219 

1853,  Tregelles  devoted  himself  to  the  task.  The 
same  chemical  process  that  had  been  used  on  the 
Codex  Ephraem  was  applied  with  perfect  success, 
and  the  older  text  became  plainly  legible.  The 
value  of  this  codex  is  great,  since  it  dates  from  the 
sixth  century. 

Several  fragments  were  found  in  1889,  by  Pro- 
fessor Harris,  at  Mt.  Sinai,  which  are  of  great 
antiquity,  and  are  the  merest  fractions  of  former 
splendid  books.  In  his  work,  ''  Biblical  Frag- 
ments from  Mt.  Sinai,"  he  gives  an  account  of 
these  curious  and  valuable  bits  of  text,  as  well  as 
of  the  more  considerable  portions  of  Scripture  dis- 
covered. A  single  leaf  containing  two  verses  of 
Numbers  thirty-two,  dates  from  the  seventh  cen- 
tury ;  a  few  words  are  rescued  that  are  very  simi- 
lar to  the  Vatican  Codex,  and  are  undoubtedly  of 
the  fourth  century,  while  a  separate  page  with 
passages  from  Judges  and  Ruth,  also  from  the 
fourth  century,  probably  belongs  to  the  same 
original  document  as  the  other  of  that  date. 
Nine  little  fragments  are  nailed  upon  a  board 
and  make  a  document  of  value,  the  ver}-  delicate 
writing  being  on  extremely  thin  vellum,  and  dat- 
ing from  the  fourth  century.  Thus  shreds  and 
fragments  are  of  use  in  their  testimony  to  the 
sacred  text. 


XV 

THE  CURSIVES  OR  MINUSCUI.ES 

T  N  an  earlier  chapter  (IX.)  it  was  said  that  the 
■■-  manuscripts  are  divided  into  two  great  classes, 
according  to  the  characters  in  which  they  are 
written.  Thus  far  attention  has  been  given  only 
to  uncials.  The  second  class  is  composed  of 
cursives  or  minuscules^  written  in  a  current,  small 
letter.  The  change  from  one  style  of  writing  to 
the  other  was  gradual.  The  capitals  became  less 
elegantly  made;  they  were  a  little  inclined,  then 
became  smaller  ;  and  finally  a  distinct  method 
was  employed  in  which  the  characters  could  be 
written  far  more  easily  and  rapidly,  the  small 
letters  of  ordinary  literature.  All  manuscripts 
written  thus  are  of  comparatively  late  date,  not 
earlier  in  any  case  than  the  ninth  century.  They 
are  very  numerous,  and  a  few  of  them  are  of  great 
importance.  Only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
have  been  fully  collated,  although  many  more 
have  been  subjected  to  careful  study.  The  cur- 
sives are  distinguished  by  the  Arabic  numerals, 
as  Codex  33,  Codex  61.  It  is  impossible  to  give 
a  complete  list  of  them  in  these  pages,  but  such  a 
list  with  much  information  concerning  each  that 
220 


THE   CURSIVES   OR   MINUSCULES  221 

has  been  published  will  be  found  in  the  fourth 
edition  of  Scrivener's  "  Plain  Introduction."  The 
second  part  of  Dr.  C.  R.  Gregory's  ''Prolego- 
mena" to  Tischendorf's  New  Testament  also 
affords  the  fullest  and  most  exact  account  of  the 
minuscules,  and  its  publication  was  greeted  with 
great  interest.  A  few  of  the  cursives  may  be 
enumerated  here. 

Codex  I,  or  Basiliensis,  so  called  from  Basle, 
where  it  is  deposited,  was  the  first  cursive  to 
render  important  aid  to  the  criticism  of  the  New 
Testament.  Erasmus  employed  it  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  Greek  text,  and  yet  he  did  not  value 
it  as  it  deserved,  and  its  influence  in  his  work  was 
comparatively  slight.  The  text  of  the  Gospels 
adheres  closely  to  that  of  the  uncials  B  and 
L  and  others  of  the  same  class,  and  is  highly 
esteemed  by  critics.  The  volume  was  once  bril- 
liantly illuminated,  containing  portraits  among 
which  were  those  of  the  Emperor  Leo  the  Wise 
and  his  son  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  but  with 
the  single  exception  of  one  before  Luke's  Gospel, 
all  the  miniatures  were  stolen  previous  to  i860. 

Codex  33  is  called  the  Queen  of  the  Cursives. 
It  is  as  late  as  the  eleventh  century,  but  only  four 
or  five  uncials  of  the  earliest  dates  are  superior 
to  it  for  critical  purposes.  The  manuscript  has 
suffered  greatly  from  want  of  care,  the  pages  have 
decayed  with   dampness,    the  leaves  have  stuck 


222  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

together  so  closely  that  in  many  cases  they  have 
been  separated  only  at  the  cost  of  transferring  all 
the  ink  from  one  page  to  another,  so  that  the  text 
can  be  read  only  by  this  set-off^  backward,  and 
mingled  with  the  original  writing  of  the  opposite 
leaf.  Tregelles  says  that  the  task  of  deciphering 
it  tried  his  eyesight  more  than  any  other  work 
of  the  kind  that  he  had  ever  done.  Yet  the  whole 
document  has  been  accurately  read,  and  is  of  great 
value.  It  is  a  beautiful  folio  in  the  National 
Library  at  Paris. 

Codex  6i,  or  Montfortianus,  so  called  from  one 
of  its  former  possessors,  Rev.  Thomas  Montfort, 
D.  D.,  of  Cambridge,  is  now  in  the  library  of 
Trinity  College,  Dublin.  This  manuscript  is  of 
special  interest  as  respects  its  testimony  to  the 
interpolated  verse  in  the  first  Epistle  of  John 
(5  :  7),  about  the  "  Three  Heavenly  Witnesses.'* 
It  happens  that  the  page  containing  this  verse  is 
covered  with  a  sort  of  glaze,  or  gloss,  as  if  to  pro- 
tect the  writing  from  injury,  and  it  is  the  only 
page  of  the  four  hundred  and  fifty-five  which  is  so 
treated.  A  witty  Irish  prelate  quoted  by  Scrivener 
says  of  this  circumstance:  "We  often  hear  that 
the  text  of  the  Three  Heavenly  Witnesses  is  a 
gloss^  and  any  one  who  will  go  into  the  College 
Library  may  see  as  much  for  himself !  "  When 
Erasmus  published  his  earliest  editions  of  the  New 
Testament  he  did  not  insert  this  verse  and  was 


THE  CURSIVES  OR   MINUSCULES  223 

severely  criticised  for  the  omission,  whereupon  he 
pledged  himself  that  whenever  the  verse  could  be 
found  in  a  good  Greek  manuscript  he  would 
insert  it.  Accordingly  in  his  third  edition  he 
printed  the  verse  (in  1522),  with  the  note  that  he 
had  found  it  in  a  Greek  manuscript,  which,  he 
called  the  Codex  Britannicus,  but  which  has  been 
identified  as  this  Codex  61.  The  document  is 
further  noteworthy  as  having  the  Revelation 
copied  (probably)  from  Codex  69,  or  the  Codex  of 
Leicester,  which  will  be  described  next.  These 
codices  were  both  at  one  time  in  the  possession  of 
William  Chark,  and  it  would  be  a  strong  tempta- 
tion to  have  the  opportunity  of  supplying  such  a 
defect  in  the  one  from  the  text  of  the  other. 

Codex  69,  Leicestrensis,  belongs  to  the  town  of 
Leicester  in  England,  and  is  treasured  in  the  Town 
Library,  to  which  it  was  given  by  a  clergyman, 
Thomas  Heyne,  who  had  himself  received  it  from 
William  Chark.  It  is  a  folio  volume,  with  leaves 
both  of  paper  and  vellum  so  arranged  as  to  give 
two  of  parchment  followed  by  three  of  paper  in 
regular  order.  The  writing  is  rough  and  in  some 
places  almost  illegible  from  carelessness  ;  it  was 
done  with  the  calamus^  or  reed  pen,  'such  as  is 
spoken  of  in  John's  third  epistle  (ver.  13)  in- 
stead of  the  stylus,  comparatively  few  of  the 
cursive  manuscripts  being  written  with  this  in- 
strument.    The  codex  dates  from  the  fourteenth 


224  ^^^   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

century,  but  though  it  is  so  late  it  contains  many 
readings  varying  from  the  received  text,  and 
scholars  place  it  in  critical  value  above  the  later 
uncials.  It  is  also  one  of  the  few  cursives  contain- 
ing the  whole  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  very 
similar  to  three  other  important  cursives,  Codex 
13  of  the  Gospels  at  Paris,  Codex  124  at  Vienna, 
and  Codex  346  at  Milan,  and  it  is  believed  that 
the  four  must  have  been  made  from  the  same 
original,  whose  date  was  probably  as  early  as  the 
sixth  century.  These  cursives  are  therefore  a 
good  example  of  the  critical  law  by  which  a 
manuscript  is  valued  for  its  testimony  not  accord- 
ing to  its  own  age  alone,  but  far  more  according 
to  the  age  and  value  of  the  text  it  represents.  It 
will  be  seen  readily  that  if  these  codices  were 
copied  directly  from  a  document  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury their  witness  to  the  text  of  that  date,  espe- 
cially as  it  is  fourfold,  must  be  very  strong. 

Codex  95  is  interesting  alike  because  it  was  so 
nearly  lost,  and  because  it  affords  what  Tregelles 
and  Alford  considered  one  of  the  most  valuable 
cursive  texts  of  the  Revelation  in  existence.  It 
contains  the  Revelation  alone  and  has  an  epitome 
of  the  commentary  of  Arethas,  in  a  cramped  and 
indistinct  text,  which  ends  with  the  eleventh  verse 
of  the  twentieth  chapter. .  This  was  the  manuscript, 
already  referred  to,  which  was  rescued  by  Lord  de 
la  Zouche  in  1837,  at  Caracalla  on  Mount  Athos, 


THE   CURSIVES  OR  MINUSCULES  225 

where  it  would  soon  have  been  used  as  a  covering 
for  pickle-jars. 

Lately  Prof.  J.  Rendel  Harris  brought  to  the 
notice  of  the  New  Testament  students  an  interest- 
ing collection  of  Greek  manuscripts  in  the  cursive 
character  in  America,  brought  from  Canea  in 
Crete  about  fifty  years  ago,  and  now  owned  by  the 
sons  of  their  purchaser.  Prof.  Benton  of  Newark, 
in  Delaware,  and  Mr.  R.  A.  Benton  of  Sewickley, 
in  Alleghany  County,  Pennsylvania.  Four  of  these 
manuscripts  are  found  to  be  of  sufficient  value  to 
be  noted  among  the  classified  codices.  The  one 
which  is  most  important  is  one  of  the  very  early 
cursives  of  the  Gospels,  not  later  than  the  tenth 
century.  It  has  uncial  titles  of  the  several  chap- 
ters in  a  beautiful  hand  and  is  described  as  an 
exquisite  specimen  of  exact  calligraphy. 

The  number  of  known  cursives  has  largely  in- 
creased in  late  years.  It  is  likely  that  the  dis- 
covery of  these  documents  will  proceed  even  more 
rapidly,  at  least  for  a  time,  and  that  large  num- 
bers of  the  cursives  and  not  a  few  uncials  will 
yet  be  added  to  the  present  resources. 


XVI 

VERSIONS   AND   FATHERS 

IF  the  translations  of  the  New  Testament  have 
not  been  of  the  almost  supreme  importance 
that  attached  to  the  Septuagint  Greek  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  the  spreading  and  the  preservation 
of  the  religion  of  which  they  are  the  written 
records,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  they  are  of 
very  great  value  as  witnesses  to  the  sacred  text. 
Several  of  these  versions  were  made  at  a  time 
long  anterior  to  the  date  of  our  earliest  extant 
Greek  manuscripts,  and  the  Greek  text  which 
they  translate  must  have  been  to  a  certainty  very 
ancient.  There  are  perhaps  a  dozen  of  these 
important  witnesses  that  stand  ready  for  the 
questioning  of  modern  science. 

But  while  such  evidence  is  of  a  high  order, 
there  are  certain  cautions  to  be  observed.  We 
always  wish  to  know  something  of  the  character 
of  any  alleged  witnesses.  How  trustworthy  are 
they  in  themselves  as  well  as  in  the  circumstances 
which  have  made  them  witnesses  ?  A  man  may 
have  been  eye-witness  to  some  fact,  but  his  general 
character  may  be  such  that  his  word  cannot  be 

trusted  for  an  instant.     In  the  case  of  this  class 
226 


VERSIONS   AND    FATHERS  227 

of  documents  it  is  not  enough  to  know  that  they 
come  very  near  to  the  original  Scriptures  ;  it  must 
be  asked  whether  their  own  text  is  trustworthy, 
and  whether  the  foreign  tongue  has  caught  the 
exact  meaning  of  the  originaL 

Copyists  of  translations  are  liable  to  the  same 
faults  as  copyists  of  the  Greek  manuscripts 
themselves,  while  there  is  the  additional  diffi- 
culty that  the  translator  brings  to  his  work 
upon  the  original  text  a  foreign  mind,  con- 
ceptions alien  to  those  of  the  first  writer,  idioms 
wholly  unlike  those  which  he  has  to  translate, 
and  shades  of  meaning  in  the  words  he  may 
use  as  equivalents  which  do  not  inhere  in  the 
original  terms.  For  example,  the  very  writing  of 
the  New  Testament  autographs  themselves  had 
the  difficulty  of  assigning  Greek  words  to  Jewish 
ideas  which  had  thus  far  had  their  native  expres- 
sion only  in  Hebrew  and  Aramaic.  As  we  have 
seen,  the  religious  books  of  the  Jews  were 
in  Hebrew,  and  their  common  speech  was 
Aramaic,  so  that  in  writing  in  Greek  it  might  be 
a  very  important  question  just  how  to  make  the 
strange  Greek  word  correspond  to  the  Jewish  con- 
ception. L/Ct  the  reader  try  a  simple  experiment, 
and  he  will  understand  the  difficulty.  The  words 
in  English,  /  love  my  horne^  convey  a  very  dis- 
tinct idea  to  an  American  ;  they  summon  to  the 
mind  the  peace  and  love  and  all  the  tender  graces 


228  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

that  make  an  American  home  delightful.  But  a 
Frenchman  would  hardly  have  the  same  idea  of  a 
home,  and  to  a  native  of  Dahomey  the  words 
would  scarcely  be  intelligible  in  their  first  sense. 
So  in  our  Scriptures  the  word  law^  so  often  used, 
might  have  one  meaning  to  the  Jew,  another  to 
the  Roman,  a  third  to  the  dweller  in  Gaul  or 
Britain  ;  it  would  perhaps  take  a  nice  sense  of  dis- 
crimination for  the  writer  in  Greek  to  apply  the 
exact  word  which  would  be  an  equivalent  of  the 
Jewish  conception.  Let  the  case  then  be  applied 
to  the  Syrian  or  Arabic,  the  Coptic  or  Abyssinian, 
the  Armenian  or  Slavonic  tongues  ;  each  trans- 
lation would  have  its  own  peculiar  difficulty,  and 
in  some  cases  might  quite  miss  the  meaning,  and 
therefore  the  language  of  a  word  or  passage.  It 
is  plain  that  a  translation  must  be  cross-ques- 
tioned, and  its  evidence  accepted  only  as  it  is 
proved  reliable.  But  all  of  these  difficulties  dis- 
appear as  the  translations  are  compared  with  each 
other,  and  with  the  Greek  manuscripts  which 
have  been  the  theme  of  the  preceding  pages. 
The  same  errors  of  a  copyist  will  not  be  likely  to 
occur  in  two  or  more  different  documents.  The 
very  differences  of  conception  in  different  lan- 
guages will  correct  each  other,  and  lead  almost 
without  fail  to  the  proper  reading  of  the  original. 
One  trouble  is  still  more  difficult  to  correct,  the 
tampering  with  the  integrity  of  the  version-texts 


VERSIONS   AND   FATHERS  229 

themselves.  These  have  sufifered  the  common  lot 
of  manuscripts  in  corrections,  emendations,  and 
marginal  notes,  so  that  a  great  need  is  found  to- 
day of  critical  examination  of  these  documents 
with  a  view  to  their  own  textual  integrity. 

The  Christian  faith  spread  with  great  rapidity 
through  all  known  countries.  The  early  journeys 
of  St.  Paul  through  Asia  Minor  and  to  Greece 
and  Italy,  the  unrecorded  journeys  of  the  other 
apostles,  and  the  various  letters  of  them  all,  car- 
ried the  good  news  to  the  farthest  lands. 
Churches  sprang  into  being  everywhere,  and  as 
time  went  on  the  demand  for  the  Scriptures  both 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  became  uni- 
versal. We  have  already  described  in  the  case  of 
the  former  how  for  example  the  Syriac  version 
came  into  being,  and  how  Jerome  translated  both 
Testaments  into  the  Latin  of  the  Vulgate.  But 
the  same  need  called  aloud  from  Africa,  from 
Armenia,  from  the  middle  and  north  of  Europe. 
The  day  of  Pentecost  had  been  prophetic  of  the 
time  when  "  every  man  in  his  own  tongue  "  must 
hear  the  word  of  life,  and  thus  at  last  the  fulfill- 
ment came,  and  each  country  had  its  own  Bible, 
the  beginning  of  the  great  work  which  in  our  own 
time  has  translated  the  word  into  three  hundred 
and  eighty-five  different  languages  and  dialects. 

The  principal  versions  are  two  of  the  first  half 
of  the  second  century,  the  Old  or  African  Latin, 


230  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

and  the  Curetoiiian  Syriac ;  two  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  second  century,  the  Memphitic  and  the 
Thebaic ;  two  of  the  third  century,  the  European 
Latin^  and  the  Peshito  Syriac  ;  four  of  the  fourth 
century,  the  Italian  Latin^  the  Vulgate^  the 
Gothic^  and  the  Ethiopic  ;  two  of  the  fifth  century, 
the  Arrnenian  and  the  Jerusalem  Syriac ;  and 
one  of  the  sixth  century,  the  Philoxenian  Syriac. 
The  Harclean  Syriac  and  other  versions  are  of 
later  dates. 

The  Old  Latin  is  a  term  that  has  been  some- 
what loosely  applied  to  all  the  Latin  antedating 
Jerome's  Vulgate,  but  it  should  be  used  only  of 
the  African  translation,  which  was  the  earliest  of 
all  versions  in  this  language.  At  the  time  in 
which  the  Old  Latin  was  made,  perhaps  at  Carth- 
age, but  surely  from  that  western  province  of 
Africa  of  which  Carthage  was  the  principal  city, 
Rome  was  still  using  a  Greek  liturgy,  and  its 
church  was  presided  over  by  bishops  with  Greek 
names  and  who  wrote  in  the  Greek  language. 
The  Christians  around  Carthage,  however,  spoke 
Latin,  and  Tertullian,  who  wrote  at  Carthage  at 
the  end  of  the  second  century,  refers  to  the  general 
use  of  a  Latin  New  Testament,  and  quotes  pas- 
sages from  it.  This  would  place  the  date  of  the 
version  certainly  as  early  as  the  middle  of  that 
century.  In  addition  to  the  quotations  by  Ter- 
tullian, we  have  those  by  Cyprian,  who  seems  to 


VERSIONS   AND   FATHERS  23 1 

have  used  it  exclusively,  so  that  the  peculiarities 
of  the  version  are  pretty  well  understood,  and  the 
extant  manuscripts  which  show  these  peculiarities 
are  thus  distinguished.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  the  African  Latin  was  very  variable,  thus 
accounting  for  the  differences  in  the  Latin  texts 
that  are  supposed  to  have  come  from  it,  like  the 
Italian  Latin,  and  others.  Augustine  writes  of 
the  "  boundless  variety  of  Latin  translations,"  and 
Jerome  speaks  of  there  being  "almost  as  many 
types  as  codices."  In  fact,  at  this  time,  a  great 
freedom  was  observed  with  reference  to  copying 
the  texts,  a  translator  using  a  wide  judgment  and 
annotations  often  finding  their  way  into  the  text 
itself.  Among  all  these  varied  translations 
Augustine  refers  to  one  text,  which  he  designates 
the  Itala^  as  more  literal  than  any  other ;  but  the 
term  Itala  has  since  and  more  correctly  been  di- 
verted from  this,  its  first  application,  to  designate 
the  Italian  Latin  of  the  fourth  centur}^,  in  which 
Jerome  set  out  to  produce  the  Vulgate.  The  Afri- 
can Latin  has  several  witnesses  extant  besides  the 
quotations  already  noted,  as  in  the  Codex  Bobiensis, 
k,  of  the  fifth  century,  the  fine  Codex  Palatinus, 
e,  of  the  fifth  century,  and  some  others. 

The    European    Latin^   is   the    earliest   Latin 
translation  used  in  Europe,  and  is  represented  by 

*  We  now  follow  these  translations  by  groups  rather  than  by  theii 
dates. 


2^2  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

extant  manuscripts  lettered  a,  b,  c,  ff,  etc.  Per- 
haps it  was  not  an  independent  effort,  but  the  Old 
Latin  may  have  crossed  the  sea  and  become  the 
parent  of  the  versions  henceforth  to  be  used  in 
Europe.  This  European  Latin  perpetuated  itself 
in  many  codices,  and  in  course  of  time  suffered  a 
revision,  which  became  known  as  the  Italian 
Latin^  or  as  it  is  now  generally  termed  the  Itala^ 
which,  as  we  have  said,  often  groups  all  the  I^atin 
versions  preceding  Jerome's  Vulgate  under  its  one 
name. 

The  Vulgate  of  Jerome  has  been  described 
upon  a  preceding  page,  where  it  was  necessary  to 
introduce  the  subject  in  connection  with  the  Old 
Testament.  It  need  only  be  added  that  the 
manuscripts  of  the  Vulgate  in  the  libraries  of 
Western  Europe  are  almost  countless,  and  from 
the  study  of  some  of  them  Lachmann  and  Tre- 
gelles  have  succeeded,  by  indefatigable  labors,  in 
restoring  very  nearly  the  original  text  as  it  came 
from  Jerome's  hand.  The  codices  of  the  Vulgate 
best  known  and  used  for  criticism,  are  generally 
cited  by  a  few  letters  abbreviating  their  names, 
as  "am.,"  for  Codex  Amiatanus,  brought  into 
the  Ivaurentian  Eibrary  at  Florence  from  the  Cis- 
tercian Monastery  of  Monte  Amiata  in  Tuscany, 
and  of  date  from  the  sixth  to  the  ninth  century ; 
"fuld."  or  "fu.,"  the  Codex  Fuldensis,  in  the 
Abbey  of  Fulda  in  Hesse  Cassel,  written  about 


VERSIONS  AND   FATHERS  233 

the  middle  of  the  sixth  century;  "tol.,"  the 
Codex  Toletanus  at  Toledo  ;  "harl.,"  the  Codex 
Harleianus,  much  valued  by  Westcott  for  critical 
merit,  etc. 

The  Syriac  group  of  versions  is  very  interesting, 
though  its  earliest  history  is  more  indefinite  than 
that  of  any  other  group,  not  excepting  the  Latin. 
It  is,  however,  perfectly  evident  that  the  Syrian 
Christians  received  the  Scriptures  in  their  own 
tongue  at  a  very  early  date,  and  the  Syriac  trans- 
lations represent  a  Greek  text  far  older  than  that 
of  the  oldest  Greek  manuscript  extant,  and  cer- 
tainly very  near  to  the  autographs  of  the  apos- 
tolic age.  ^ 

The  Curetonian  Syriac  is  now  considered  the 
older  Syriac  version  •  the  Peshito  the  later,  or  re- 
vised text.  The  Curetonian  Syriac  has  been 
known  only  through  one  example  until  very 
lately  (April,  1893),  when  another  document  con- 
taining the  same  text  was  discovered  at  Mt.  Sinai 
by  an  English  lady.  Both  discoveries  were  of  a 
remarkable  character.  In  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury in  England  a  spirited  controversy  arose  con- 
cerning the  epistles  of  Ignatius,  seven  of  which 
were  extant,  and  five  that  were  falsely  ascribed  to 
him.  The  nature  of  this  controversy  need  not 
occupy  the  attention  now,  but  it  is  mentioned  to 
explain  the  circumstance  that  an  anxious  search 

^See  preceding  pages,  1 09-1 11. 


234         ^HE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE  FAITH 

was  instituted  about  that  time  for  new  literary 
relics  of  Ignatius,  which  was  continued  for  many 
years.  Through  the  influence  of  Archbishop 
Ussher,  all  the  sea  captains  who  left  England  for 
the  Orient  were  commanded  to  bring  home  at 
least  one  manuscript,  in  the  hope  that  something 
might  be  found  to  assist  the  scholars  in  determin- 
ing this  and  other  great  questions.  Most  of  these 
captains  brought  back  copies  of  the  Koran,  which 
they  could  obtain  with  ease,  and  were  of  no  value 
to  biblical  scholars.  L^etters  were  also  sent  to  the 
principal  Greek  ecclesiastics  in  the  East,  asking 
them  to  assist  in  the  search  for  valuable  docu- 
ments. One  locality  in  particular  was  considered 
to  be  of  hopeful  fertility  in  this  respect,  absolutely 
barren  as  it  was  in  every  other.  The  great  Ni- 
trian  Desert  lay  about  seventy  miles  northward 
from  Cairo,  a  resort  from  the  earliest  times  of  re- 
ligious recluses,  who  had  been  drawn  thither  by 
some  superstition  that  their  holiness  would  be 
promoted  by  bathing  in  the  water  of  the  adjacent 
lakes,  which  was  strongly  impregnated  with  nitre. 
It  is  said  that  no  less  than  three  hundred  and 
sixty  monasteries  were  once  grouped  in  this 
region.  In  a  time  of  common  danger  many  of 
these  were  surrounded  by  a  wall,  which  served  at 
once  to  ward  off  danger  from  without  and  to 
solidify  the  brotherhood  within.  It  was  believed 
in   Europe   that   this  fortified   monastery   might 


VERSIONS  AND  FATHERS  235 

contain  many  valuable  literary  treasures,  placed 
here  for  safe  keeping  as  well  as  for  the  use  of  the 
monks,  and  in  1679  the  Rev.  Robert  Huntington 
sought  the  place,  but  was  not  permitted  to  visit 
the  libraries.  He  reported,  however,  that  he  had 
seen  enough  to  confirm  the  expectations  in 
Europe.  Some  years  afterward,  Pope  Clement 
XI. ,  sent  a  native  Syrian  to  the  Nitrian  Desert 
upon  the  same  errand.  But  though  he  was  re- 
ceived cordially,  he  was  allowed  only  to  visit  a 
cellar  which  was  full  of  manuscripts  that  the 
monks  themselves  could  not  read.  Forty  of  these 
parchments  were  sold  to  the  visitor,  and  he  took 
them  to  Rome  where  they  were  deposited  in  the 
Vatican  Library  and,  as  was  to  be  expected  at 
that  time,  nothing  more  was  heard  of  them. 
Other  attempts  were  made  with  the  only  result  of 
exciting  the  interest  and  cupidity  of  the  Nitrian 
monks,  who  now  obstinately  refused  to  part  with 
any  of  their  treasures.  In  1838,  however.  Arch- 
deacon Tattam  himself  went  to  Egypt,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  persuading  the  monks  to  sell  him  such 
books  as  did  not  have  written  in  them  any  curses 
— such  as  we  have  described  upon  a  former  page, 
126 — forbidding  any  one  to  sell  them.  He  was 
taken  to  a  vaulted  room  which  had  neither  door 
nor  windows,  and  could  be  entered  only  by  a  trap 
door  from  above.  He  was  lowered  down  into  this 
cellar,  furnished  with  a  candle,  and  left  to  make 


236  THK   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

his  own  investigation  of  a  large  mass  of  manu- 
scripts covering  the  floor  to  a  depth  of  one  or  two 
feet.  He  secured  from  this  room  and  some  other 
places  five  hundred  and  fifty  documents  in  all, 
which  he  took  away  to  England.  Forty  of  these 
manuscripts  found  their  way  into  the  British 
Museum,  and  came  under  the  care  of  the  Rev. 
William  Cureton,  whose  discovery  of  the  Palimp- 
sest R  was  narrated  in  a  former  chapter.  He 
studied  the  collection  with  great  care,  and  found 
among  the  documents  parts  of  the  Gospels  written 
upon  a  fragment  containing  eighty-two  and  a 
half  leaves,  which  were  in  Syriac.  The  passages 
thus  preserved  were  chapters  of  the  first  Gospel 
I  to  8  :  22  ;  10  :  31  to  23  :  25  ;  of  St.  Mark  only 
four  verses,  16  :  17-20  ;  of  St.  Luke  2  :  48  to  3  : 
16  ;  7  :  33  to  15  :  21  ;  17  :  24  to  24  :  44 ;  and  of 
St.  John  I  :  1-42  and  3  :  6  to  7  :  37,  with  a  few 
scattered  verses  of  the  fourteenth  chapter.  A  few 
more  passages  were  supplied  by  the  discovery  in 
1 87 1  of  three  other  leaves,  which  were  deposited 
in  the  Imperial  Library  in  Berlin  ;  these  additions 
were  St.  Luke  15  :  22  to  16  :  12  ;  17  :  1-23  ;  and 
in  the  fourth  Gospel  7  :  38  to  8  :  19  except  the 
verses  containing  the  story  of  the  woman  taken 
in  adultery.  The  Syriac  version  contained  in 
these  fragments  bears  a  very  striking  resemblance 
to  the  text  of  Codex  Bezae,  D  and  has  been, 
though  perhaps  wrongly,  considered  as  made  from 


VKRSIONS   AND   FATHERS  237 

the  same  original  as  that  remarkable  manuscript. 
The  Syriac  Codex  was  written  about  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century,  but  the  far  greater  age  of  the 
Greek  text  from  which  it  was  made  has  been  con- 
firmed lately  by  the  discovery  of  Tatian's  "  Diates- 
saron^^^  ^  a  Gospel  harmony  of  the  second  century. 
The  text  of  the  harmony  is  Arabic,  based  upon 
the  Curetonian  Syriac,  and  as  the  harmony  is  be- 
yond doubt  as  early  as  A.  D.  160,  the  Curetonian 
Syriac  must  be  earlier  than  that,  and  the  Greek 
text  from  which  the  Syriac  was  made  considerably 
earlier  still.  Tatian's  work  will  be  more  fully 
considered  upon  a  later  page.  It  can  be  seen  that 
the  Curetonian  Syriac  is  of  the  first  importance 
among  translations  as  a  testimony  to  the  apostolic 
writings. 

The  great  value  but  fragmentary  character  of 
the  Curetonian  Gospels  had  led  scholars  to  hope 
that  some  further  discovery  might  be  made  to 
supplement  this  Syriac  text,  but  it  had  almost 
become  a  vain  wish  until  suddenly  the  news  was 
given  out  that  an  English  lady,  Mrs.  A.  S.  lycwis, 
with  her  twin  sister,  Mrs.  M.  D.  Gibson,  had 
brought  a  manuscript  to  Europe  containing  the 
long  desired  testimony.  These  ladies  in  the 
spring  of  1892  visited  the  East,  intending  par- 

^  This  important  work  has  been  translated  into  English  with  a 
valuable  introduction  and  appendices,  by  J.  Hamlin  Hill,  B.  D. 
Edinburgh,  T.  &  T.  Clark. 


238  THE  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

ticularly  to  explore  some  of  the  ancient  convents 
and  libraries,  for  which  they  were  well  fitted  by  a 
knowledge  of  Greek,  and  a  long  friendship  with 
several  of  the  most  noted  English  scholars  in 
biblical  departments.  Their  attention  had  been 
turned  especially  to  the  convent  at  Mt.  Sinai, 
where  Tischendorf  had  found  the  Sinai  tic  manu- 
script, and  to  the  Syriac  department  of  its  library 
by  the  recent  discovery  there  of  the  "  Apology  of 
Aris tides,"  an  important  early  Christian  work. 
This  discovery  had  been  made  by  Prof.  J.  Rendel 
Harris,  and  he  urged  Mrs.  I^ewis  to  examine  the 
library  further,  and  he  insisted  upon  her  taking 
an  equipment  for  photography,  in  which  he  gave 
her  a  few  lessons.  Upon  reaching  the  convent  of 
St.  Catherine,  the  two  ladies  were  received  with 
cordiality,  and  access  to  the  Syriac  books  was 
readily  granted.  In  an  article  in  the  "  Independ- 
ent ' '  Mrs.  Lewis  tells  her  own  story,  which  we 
give  with  omissions  and  further  explanations  : 

"  Among  the  Syriac  books  which  they  showed 
us,  I  soon  picked  out  a  volume  of  a  hundred  and 
seventy- eight  leaves,  nearly  all  glued  together 
with  some  greasy  substance.  I  separated  them 
partly  with  my  fingers  and  partly  with  the  steam 
of  a  kettle.  They  had  the  more  fascination  for 
me  that  no  human  eye  had  evidently  looked  on 
them  for  centuries  ;  and  I  soon  perceived  that  it 
was  a  palimpsest,  whose  upper  or  later  writing 


VERSIONS   AND   FATHERS  239 

contained  the  stories  of  women  saints,  whilst  the 
under  or  earlier  one  was  the  four  Gospels,  as  I 
knew  from  many  pages  being  headed  '  Evan- 
gelion,'  'Matthi,'  'Marcus,'  or  '  Luca.'  I  could 
also  read  detached  words  or  lines  where  they 
appeared  on  the  margins.  I  therefore  at  once 
determined  to  photograph  the  whole  of  this 
palimpsest." 

Difficulties  at  once  arose  from  inexperience  in 
the  practice  of  photography  and  serious  defects 
in  the  apparatus  with  which  Mrs.  Lewis  had  been 
provided,  and  the  work  progressed  slowly.  She 
adds  : 

"  Besides  this,  my  sister,  who  seconded  me  with 
great  assiduity,  sometimes  lost  her  place  in  tm-n- 
ing  over  the  leaves,  and  thus  put  me  in  possession 
of  at  least  thirty-three  duplicates,  which  I  did  not 
want,  as  they  increased  both  my  work  and  her 
own. 

"  We  returned  home  in  the  end  of  March,  and 
developed  most  of  our  photographs  successfully, 
with  the  exception  of  some  which  were  sent  to 
the  Eastman  Company  and  were  spoiled.  The 
box  which  contained  these  had  been  picked  out 
at  random  from  among  over  forty  similar  ones  ; 
yet,  strangely  enough,  it  contained  those  of  which 
my  sister's  mistakes  had  furnished  us  with  dupli- 
cates. 

"  When  the  three  hundred  and  fifty-six  pages 


240         THE  PARCHMENTS  OK  THE   FAITH 

of  our  palimpsest  were  completed,  I  read  the 
upper  writing,  and  found  that  it  contained  the 
stories  of  Tliecla,  Eugenia,  Pelagia,  Marina, 
Buphrosyna,  Onesima,  Drosis,  Barbara,  Maria, 
Irene,  Buphemia,  Sophia,  Theodosia,  Theodota, 
a  short  creed,  and  the  stories  of  Susanna,  and 
Cyprian  and  Justina.  As  my  eyes  were  not  keen 
enough  to  read  the  under  writing,  which  ran 
between  and  underneath  the  lines  of  the  upper, 
and  was  of  course  much  more  minute  than  the 
original,  I  showed  my  photographs  to  several 
Syriac  scholars,  asking  if  they  could  help  me  to 
find  out  to  which  version  these  Gospels  belonged." 
With  the  aid  of  these  scholars,  and  the  careful 
transcription  of  a  page  or  two,  it  was  at  last 
determined  that  the  version  was  one  closely  allied 
to  the  Curetonian.  It  was  seen  that  the  photo- 
graphs brought  to  England  were  quite  insufiicient 
for  a  successful  transcription  of  the  whole  docu- 
ment, and  in  company  with  Prof  Harris,  Prof. 
Bensley,  and  Mr.  F.  C.  Barkitt,  Mrs.  I^ewis  and 
Mrs.  Gibson  returned  to  the  convent.  For  more 
than  a  month  this  little  company  worked  assidu- 
ously from  sunrise  to  sunset,  both  upon  this 
palimpsest  and  in  cataloguing  the  Syriac  library, 
with  the  following  results  briefly  stated.  The 
upper  writing  of  the  palimpsest,  in  one  column, 
was  made  about  A.  d.  778,  and  to  supply  the  vel- 
lum on  which  it  was  written,  an  older  book  was 


VERSIONS  AND   FATHERS  241 

taken  to  pieces  and  arranged  so  that  the  Gospels 
of  that  older  volume  are  interleaved  with  each 
other.  The  older  writing  is  exceedingly  faint, 
and  in  parts  almost  illegible,  but  the  whole  of  the 
Gospels  seems  to  be  present.  The  text  is  in  two 
columns,  and  in  many  instances  comes  more 
clearly  to  view  under  the  action  of  a  chemical 
reviver.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  Gospel  of  Mark 
was  transcribed,  and  it  is  noted  that  the  last 
twelve  verses  of  that  Gospel  are  wanting,  as  in 
some  of  the  older  Greek  codices.  The  Curetonian 
Gospels  contain  these  verses,  which  may  indicate 
that  the  new  codex  is  older  than  the  Curetonian. 
The  old  reading  of  the  song  of  the  angels  in  Ivuke 
2  :  14  is  also  restored:  "Good  will  towards 
men."  Moreover,  the  colophon  of  the  manuscript 
links  it  to  the  Curetonian,  describing  it  as  "  the 
separated  Gospels,"  possibly  such  a  harmony  or 
"  Diatessaron  "  as  that  of  Tatian. 

It  is  evident  that  the  discovery  by  Mrs.  lycwis 
and  Mrs.  Gibson  is  of  great  importance,  and  some 
have  written  that  it  should  be  considered  to  rank 
next  to  the  achievement  of  Tischendorf  at  the 
same  place  in  bringing  to  light  the  Codex  Sinaiti- 
cus.  But  unfortunately  for  these  pages  the  publi- 
cation of  the  full  results  of  the  study  of  the 
document  is  delayed,  and  the  learned  world  does 
not  yet  know  the  complete  value  of  the  manu- 
script.    The  little  volume  ' '  How  the  Codex  was 


242  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Found,"  by  Mrs.  Gibson  is  hardly  more  than  a 
publication  of  Mrs.  L^ewis'  journals  of  the  two 
visits  to  Sinai,  and  while  it  is  interesting,  is 
wholly  unsatisfying  so  far  as  any  description  of 
the  codex  is  concerned. 

The  Peshito  or  the  Simple  Syriac,  is  a  revision 
of  the  earlier  version,  of  which  the  Curetonian 
and  the  I^ewis'  documents  are  examples.  It 
became  the  translation  generally  accepted  and 
used  by  the  Syrian  churches,  and  its  position  has 
not  inaptly  been  characterized  by  the  term  the 
^' Syrian  Vulgate,"  so  fully  did  it  play  the  same 
part  for  the  Syrian  Christians  that  was  served  by 
the  Vulgate  for  the  Latin  Christians  all  over  the 
world.  It  is  a  very  careful  and  faithful  version, 
avoiding  allegorical  interpretations  and  all  changes 
of  a  similar  sort  so  frequent  in  the  transcriptions 
of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  commentaries  of  the 
time.  The  Peshito  covers  both  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments.  All  of  the  canonical  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  were  originally  found,  but 
from  the  New  Testament  the  second  and  third 
Epistles  of  John,  the  second  of  Peter,  that  of  Jude, 
and  the  Revelation  are  wanting.  This  version  is 
read  to-day  by  the  various  divisions  of  the  Syrian 
church.  The  Nestorians  among  the  mountain 
recesses  of  Kurdistan,  the  Monophysites,  who 
dwell  upon  the  widespread  plains  of  Syria,  the 
Maronites   upon   the   sloping   terraces  of  Mount 


VERSIONS   AND   FATHERS  243 

Lebanon,  and  far  away  upon  the  shores  of  IMala- 
bar  the  Christians  of  St.  Thomas,  dwell  equally 
upon  its  pages  and  use  it  in  their  public  assem- 
blies. From  all  these  communities  manuscripts 
of  the  Peshito  have  come  to  light,  exhibiting 
texts  of  no  important  diflference,  and  testifying  to 
the  one  parent  of  them  all,  which  was  used  in 
Palestine  and  S>'ria  long  before  the  division  of  the 
Syrian  church  into  its  present  hostile  sects. 

The  Philoxeiitan  Syriac^  made  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury under  the  patronage  of  Philoxenus,  Bishop  of 
Mabug  (Hierapolis),  is  another  version,  yet  not 
wholly  independent  of  the  Peshito.  It  has  very  few 
remains  in  the  original  form,  though  perhaps  the 
Gospels  in  this  version  are  to  be  identified  in  a  manu- 
script lately  discovered  and  in  the  possession  of  the 
Syrian  Protestant  College  in  Beirut.  The  version 
is  probably  the  most  servile  in  its  exact  adherence 
to  the  literal  meaning  ever  made.  iVn  interesting 
note  appended  to  the  manuscripts  of  the  Gospels 
from  which  the  printed  text  is  derived  shows  the 
labor  necessary  for  the  production  of  such  a  vol- 
ume, and  excites  sympathy  for  every  copyist  like 
"  Poor  Thomas,"  who  wrote  the  note  :  ''  This  is 
the  book  of  the  four  holy  Evangelists,  which  was 
turned  out  of  the  Greek  language  into  Syriac 
with  great  diligence  and  much  labour,  first  in  the 
city  of  Mabug  in  the  year  819,  of  Alexander  of 
Macedon  (a.  d.  508),  in  the  days  of  the  pious  Mar 


244       I'HE  parchm?:nts  of  the  faith 

Philoxenus,  confessor,  bishop  of  that  city.  But 
it  was  afterward  collated  with  great  care  by  me, 
Poor  Thomas,  with  the  aid  of  two  highly  approved 
and  accurate  Greek  MSS.  in  Antonia,  of  the 
great  city  of  Alexandria,  in  the  holy  monastery 
of  the  Antonians.  It  was  again  written  out  and 
collated  in  the  aforesaid  place  in  the  year  927  of 
the  same  Alexander  (a.  d.  616),  in  the  fourth  in- 
diction.  How  much  toil  and  diligence  I  spent 
upon  it  and  its  companions^  the  Lord  only  knows, 
who  will  reward  every  man  according  to  his  works 
in  his  just  and  righteous  judgment,  in  which  may 
we  be  counted  worthy  of  his  mercy.     Amen." 

The  Jerusalem  Syriac  is  preserved  in  certain 
lesson  books,  or  Lectionaries,  representing  a  very 
peculiar  dialect,  and  it  has  been  supposed  to  have 
been  used  in  a  region  contiguous  to  Palestine, 
where  the  Syrian  speech  and  idiom  were  not  pure. 
The  lessons  are  from  the  Gospels,  in  addition  to 
which  only  a  few  verses  from  the  Acts  are  known. 
Only  one  manuscript  of  this  version  was  in  our 
possession  until  the  late  visits  of  Mrs.  Lewis  and 
Mrs.  Gibson  to  Mt.  Sinai,  where,  in  connection 
with  Prof.  Harris,  they  found  two  other  copies 
dating  from  11 16  and  1120  respectively.  The 
codex  in  the  Vatican  Library  was  written  in  the 
year  1030.     The  term  Jerusalem  Syriac  is  used 

^  Other  parts  of  the  New  Testament.     This  version  is  also  called 
Harkleian  from  Harkel,  the  birthplace  of  "  Poor  Thomas." 


VERSIONS  AND   FATHERS  245 

because  the  grammatical  forms  resemble  the 
Chaldee  more  than  the  Syriac,  and  the  most  ordi- 
nary words  employed  are  illustrated  only  from  the 
Chaldee  portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  from  the 
Jerusalem  Targum,  or  the  Talmud. 

Two  independent  versions  of  the  early  Egyptian 
church  have  come  down  to  modern  times,  known 
as  the  Memphitic  and  the  Thebaic.  The  former 
is  also  known  as  the  Coptic,  and  is  so  cited  by 
Tischendorf  by  the  abbreviation  "cop.,"  while 
the  latter  is  also  called  the  Sahidic  and  has  the 
abbreviation  "sah. "  We  know  that  Christianity 
gained  a  strong  position  in  Egypt  from  the  very 
earliest  times.  Here  monasticism  established 
itself  most  firmly,  and  Paul  of  Thebes  with  his 
disciple  Pachomius,  and  especially  the  great 
Antony,  whose  fame  was  established  in  Europe 
by  his  biography  written  by  Athanasius,  and 
many  other  noted  monks  like  Ammonius  and 
Hilarion,  gave  a  very  distinct  character  to  the 
Egyptian  church,  their  communities  of  monks 
exercising  a  strong  influence  upon  the  life  of  the 
Egyptian  cities  and  affecting  the  imperial  court 
even  in  far-off  Constantinople.  The  Greek  lan- 
guage after  the  conquest  by  Alexander,  laid  hold 
upon  the  native  dialects,  and  either  in  part  drove 
them  out  or  mingled  with  them,  so  that  when  at 
last  the  Greek  ceased  to  be  spoken  as  a  separate 
tongue,   there  was  a  marked  difference  between 


246  THE  PARCHMENTS  OE  THE   FAITH 

the  dialect  of  Upper  Egypt,  remote  from  Alexan- 
dria and  the  seat  of  the  Greek  culture,  and  the 
tongue  spoken  in  lyower  Egypt  in  the  region 
nearer  the  court  of  the  Ptolemies.  When  Christian- 
ity spread  everywhere,  the  monks  and  anchorites 
bore  their  religion  far  up  the  Nile  and  to  the  bor- 
ders of  the  I^ibyian  deserts,  and  in  both  dialects 
a  demand  arose  for  the  Scriptures  of  the  faith. 

Thus  these  translations  came  into  being,  and 
though  most  of  the  manuscripts  of  the  Memphitic 
dialect  that  are  extant  date  no  earlier  than  the 
tenth  century,  Dr.  I^ightfoot,  through  whose 
labors  they  are  chiefly  known,  considers  the 
Egyptian  versions  to  be  among  the  most  impor- 
tant witnesses  in  textual  criticism.  "  Of  all  the 
versions,"  he  says,  "the  Memphitic  is  perhaps  the 
most  important  for  the  textual  critic,"  and  he 
ranks  the  Thebaic  as  ' '  only  second  to  the  Mem- 
phitic in  value. "  The  manuscripts  of  the  The- 
baic are  fewer  than  the  Memphitic,  but  they  go 
back  in  some  fragments  and  quotations  to  an 
earlier  age.  There  is  a  third  translation  in  the 
Egyption  group  called  the  Bashmuric  (bash)  made 
for  the  use  of  scattered  tribes  of  herdsmen  living 
chiefly  in  the  delta  of  the  Nile.  But  it  is  rather 
an  adaptation  of  the  Thebaic  than  an  independent 
version,  and  is  chiefly  useful  in  supplying  the  gaps 
in  the  Thebaic  from  the  three  hundred  and  thirty 
verses  of  John  and  Paul  of  which  it  consists. 


VERSIONS  AND   FATHERS  247 

Other  versions  may  be  passed  by  with  brief 
mention.  The  Ethiopic  or  Abyssinian  was  made 
directly  from  the  Greek,  probably  in  the  fourth 
century'-,  although  its  earliest  manuscripts  that 
remain  are  of  the  fifteenth  centur\\  It  contains 
the  whole  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  not  of 
the  first  value  for  criticism,  and  the  same  is  to  be 
said  of  the  Gothic  by  which  the  gospel  was  given 
to  the  tribes  of  northern  Europe  by  the  great 
Ulfilas,  the  A7'7ne7iian  version,  dating  about  A.  D. 
433,  the  Slavonic  and  others. 

The  early  quotations  from  the  New  Testament 
by  Christian  writers  are  nearly  akin  to  the  trans- 
lations as  evidence  to  the  text  of  the  original,  al- 
though in  general  they  are  likely  to  be  more  free 
and  indefinite  than  the  text  of  a  version.  The 
early  Fathers  often  quoted  with  a  gTcater  reliance 
upon  memor}'  than  would  be  found  in  most  mod- 
ern books.  Their  copies  of  the  Bible  were  fewer, 
more  costly,  more  cumbersome  than  ours,  and  they 
did  not  have  that  extreme  reverence  for  the  very 
word  and  letter  of  the  original  which  many 
Christians  have  attached  in  later  days  to  the 
verses  of  the  English  Bible.  If  they  got  the 
meaning,  if  they  quoted  without  violence  to  the 
real  sense  of  a  passage,  it  often  sufiiced  them,  even 
if  they  did  not  repeat  more  than  a  few  words  that 
were  written.  Yet  in  most  instances  the  quota- 
tions are suflBciently  exact  to  bear  valuable  witness 


248  THK   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

to  the  Bible  in  use  at  that  time  and  place,  so  that 
at  least  its  corroborative  or  corrective  force  may 
be  added  to  our  materials  for  criticism.  It  is 
probable  that  the  whole  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament  could  be  recovered  from  these  ancient 
Fathers  if  our  Bibles  were  blotted  out  of  exist- 
ence, so  copious  are  their  quotations  and  com- 
ments ;  but  this  cannot  be  said  of  a  possible  re- 
construction of  the  continuous  text  of  the  New 
Testament,  for  there  are  many  passages  that  re- 
ceive almost  no  mention  at  all,  while  we  must  re- 
member that  the  texts  of  the  Fathers  themselves 
have  been  subjected  to  the  same  perils  of  trans- 
mission which  attended  the  other  documents  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking.  Moreover,  if  we 
have  determined  exactly  the  original  text  of  the 
Father,  and  that  he  quoted  word  for  word  the 
passage  in  question,  even  then  his  testimony  is 
good  only  for  the  reading  of  that  original  copy^ 
and  this  manuscript  reading  must  then  be  tested 
in  the  ordinary  way.  It  is  thus  seen  that  the 
testimony  of  the  Fathers,  while  of  great  value,  is 
nevertheless  two  or  three  removes  from  prime  im- 
portance. There  are  two  great  classes  of  early 
Christian  writings,  according  to  the  character  of 
the  document  as  Greek  or  L^atin.  The  Greek 
Fathers  are  direct  witnesses,  the  L^atin  indirect. 
To  these  should  be  added  a  few  Syriac  writers  of 
importance,  like  Bphraem.     The  list  in  the  ap- 


VERSIONS  AND   FATHERS 


249 


pended  note  will  show  some  of  the  names  of  most 
importance  for  textual  criticism,  though  it  should 
be  remembered  that  many  others  should  be  named, 
especially  if  other  questions,  as  that  of  the  canon, 
are  considered.^ 

*  In  the  list  the  Latin  writers  are  marked  with  a  star. 

Smyrna. 

(In  Ar.  and  Syr.)    Harmonist. 

Bishop  of  Lyons. 

Catechetical  Teacher. 

Translator  of  Irenceus.  (Per- 
haps about  300.) 

Disciple  of  Irenseus. 

Carthage  and  Hippo,  Africa. 

Catechetical  Teacher.  Alex- 
andria. 

Bishop  of  Carthage,  Africa. 

Bishop  of  Ccesarea. 

Bishop  of  Alexandria. 

Bishop  of  Jerusalem. 

The  Translator.     Bethlehem. 

Bishop  of  Milan. 

Of  Aquileia. 

Perhaps  Hilary  the  Deacon. 

Bishop  of  Cagliari. 

Bishop  of  Cjesarea. 

Bishop  of  Poitiers. 

Bishop  of  Antioch  and  Con- 
stantinople. 

Bishop  of  Alexandria. 

Bishop  of  Salamis  in  Cyprus. 

Bishop  of  Hippo,  Africa. 

Bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  Cilicia. 

Bishop.     Commentator. 

Bishop  of  Sulci. 

Archbishop  of  Crete. 

The  dates  in  the  list  are  sometimes  only  approximate.  The 
method  of  citing  these  writers  is  by  the  first  few  letters  of  their 
names,  as  Tert.  for  Tertullian,  Did.  for  Didymus,  Epiph.  for  Epiph- 
anius,  Aug.  for  Augustine,  Chrys.  for  Chrysostom. 


103-168 

Justin  Martyr 

-172 

Tatian  the  Syrian 

120-190 

Irenaeus 

-220 

Clement  of  Alexandria 

-180? 

Irenaeus  (Interpreter)  * 

-225 

Hippolytus 

160-240 

Tertullian  * 

186-253 

Origen 

-258 

Cyprian  * 

264-340 

Eusebius 

296-373 

Athanasius 

315-386 

Cyril  of  Jerusalem 

340-420 

Jerome  * 

340-397 

Ambrose  * 

345-410 

Rufinus  * 

-360 

Ambrosiaster  * 

-370 

Lucifer  * 

329-379 

Basil  the  Great 

-368 

Hilary  * 

347-407 

Chrysostom 

-396 

Didymus 

-402 

Epiphanius 

354-430 

Augustine  * 

-429 

Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  * 

-444 

C)Til  of  Alexandria 

-450 

Euthalius 

635-700 

Andreas 

XVII 

THK   LATKR  DISCOVERIES 

'T^HK  very  recent  discovery  of  Syriac  Gospels 
A  and  Syriac  lyectionaries  at  Mt.  Sinai  has 
been  narrated  ;  but  several  other  important  works 
have  been  brought  to  light  in  late  years,  and 
though  they  are  not  to  be  ranked  with  the  Greek 
manuscripts,  or  the  important  versions  as  of  value 
for  critical  work  upon  the  original  text,  they  are 
of  sufficient  note,  as  bearing  upon  many  questions 
of  the  greatest  interest  to  the  student  of  the  New 
Testament,  to  find  mention  in  this  volume.  Only 
a  few  of  the  most  important  are  selected  for 
description. 

In  the  year  1875  a  manuscript  dated  A.  D.  1056 
was  brought  to  light  by  the  publication  of  a  part 
of  it  by  Philotheos  Bryennios,  Metropolitan  of 
Serrae  in  ancient  Mesopotamia.  He  had  dis- 
covered the  manuscript  in  the  library  of  the  Most 
Holy  Sepulchre  in  Fanar  of  Constantinople,  and 
had  selected  the  two  epistles  of  Clement  of  Rome 
for  publication,  which  added  to  our  previous 
knowledge  of  these  epistles  the  last  six  chapters 
of  the  first  and  the  last  eight  sections  of  the 
second.  The  whole  volume,  an  octavo  in  form, 
250 


THE   LATER   DISCOVERIES  25 1 

consisted  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  leaves  of 
parchment,  written  in  cursive  characters,  and  con- 
taining the  following  works  :  Chrysostom's 
*' Synopsis  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible";  "The 
Epistle  of  Barnabas"  ;  "The  Two  Epistles  of 
Clement  of  Rome";  "The  Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles";  "The  Epistle  of  Mary  of 
Cassobelae  to  Ignatius"  ;  and  "Twelve  Epistles 
of  Ignatius,"  that  is,  the  current  seven,  one  to  the 
Virgin  Mar}^,  and  four  others.  The  announce- 
ment of  the  contents  of  the  manuscript  at  the 
time  of  the  publication  of  the  Clementine  letters 
excited  some  interest,  but  not  a  tithe  of  that 
which  was  at  once  aroused  when  Bryennios,  now 
removed  to  the  See  of  Nicomedia  in  Asia  Minor, 
published  ' '  The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles," in  1883.  This  work  occupied  leaves  76  to 
80  of  the  manuscript,  and  was  at  once  recognized 
as  a  long-lost  document,  which  had  been  cited 
very  early  by  Clement  and  Eusebius  and  others, 
and  which  must  have  belonged  to  a  date  possibly 
as  early  as  A.  D.  120,  and  surely  not  later  than 
A.  D.  160.  It  has  a  sub-title  :  Teac/mtg  of  the 
Lord^  through  the  Twelve  Apostles^  to  the  Nations^ 
and  consists  of  sixteen  chapters.  The  teaching 
opens  with  a  beautiful  definition  of  the  two  ways, 
the  way  of  life  and  the  way  of  death,  and  the 
first  four  chapters  are  taken  up  with  a  description 
of  the  former,   largely  a  repetition  of  the  com- 


252  THE  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

mandments  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  with 
many  other  precepts.  Chapter  five  defines  the 
way  of  death,  and  closes  with  the  tender  words  : 
"  May  ye  be  delivered,  children,  from  all  these." 
The  sixth  chapter  is  an  exhortation  to  keep  the 
preceding  teachings.  The  next  four  chapters  are 
occupied  with  matters  of  ritual,  showing  that  as 
yet  there  were  only  the  most  exceptional  and 
simple  departures  from  the  practice  of  the  apos- 
tolic church,  baptism  by  pouring  being  permitted 
only  when  water  in  sufficient  quantity  for  immer- 
sion could  not  be  obtained,  and  particular  stress 
being  laid  upon  the  giving  of  the  Eucharist  to 
none  ''  except  those  baptized  into  the  I^ord's 
name."  Rules  for  fasting  and  prayers  are  also 
given.  The  eleventh  chapter  concerns  true  and 
false  prophets  ;  the  twelfth  is  for  the  reception  of 
strangers  who  come  in  the  name  of  the  lyord  ; 
and  the  thirteenth  provides  for  the  support  of 
prophets.  Then  follow  the  chapters  upon  the 
Lord's  Day,  and  the  appointment  of  bishops  and 
deacons ;  while  the  last  chapter  is  taken  up  with 
a  beautiful  exhortation  to  live  in  watchfulness, 
expecting  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  In  the  course 
of  the  whole  document  Bryennios  finds  three 
references  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  four  to  the 
Apocrypha,  while  there  are  thirty  to  the  New 
Testament,  of  which  twenty  appear  to  be  to  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew. 


THE   LATER   DISCOVERIES  253 

The  "  Teaching,"  as  it  is  generally  called,  or  the 
Didache  in  the  Greek,  is  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant non-canonical  writings  in  its  bearings  upon 
the  history  and  customs  of  the  early  Christian 
church.  In  common  with  similar  writings  as  well 
as  with  the  versions,  it  bears  testimony  to  the 
books  from  which  it  quotes  as  in  common  use  at 
the  time ;  but  this  testimony,  certain  as  it  is  for 
the  Scriptures  quoted,  must  not  be  misused  by 
making  its  omissions  indicative  of  the  non-exist- 
ence of  canonical  books.  For  example,  it  does 
not  quote  the  Gospel  of  John,  nor  the  second  epis- 
tle of  Peter,  nor  the  Revelation,  but  in  such  a 
case  as  this  the  *' argument  from  silence"  is 
worthless,  as  will  be  seen  when  we  speak  below 
of  the  clear  and  abundant  testimony  to  the  fourth 
Gospel  borne  by  the  '''' Diatessaro7t "  of  Tatian,  of 
about  the  same  date  with  the  "  Teaching. "  Indeed 
it  may  be  said  that  the  "  Teaching,"  and  all  the 
other  late  discoveries,  conspire  to  settle  the  questions 
of  the  antiquity  of  the  canonical  books  in  accord- 
ance with  what  has  been  in  general  the  unwaver- 
ing opinion  of  conservative  scholarship.  The 
announcement  of  the  discovery  of  this  document 
at  once  aroused  the  greatest  interest.  Attempts 
to  see  the  original  manuscript  and  to  obtain 
copies,  and  if  possible  fac  similes  by  photograph 
were  made,  but  owing  to  the  jealousy  with  which 
it  was  guarded  in  the  Jerusalem  Monastery  of  the 
w 


254  "^^^   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Holy  Sepulchre,  in  Constantinople,  they  were 
frustrated  for  a  long  time,  a  photograph  of  a 
single  page  being  secured  at  last.  But  the  publi- 
cation of  the  document  took  place  in  1883. 

The  "  Apology  of  Aristides  "  is  another  early 
Christian  work  discovered  by  Prof.  J.  Rendel  Har- 
ris, in  the  library  of  the  Convent  of  St.  Catherine  at 
Mt.  Sinai,  in  the  year  1889.  Its  bearing  upon  the 
New  Testament  is  slight,  but  it  may  be  classed 
properly  with  the  documents  that  throw  light 
upon  the  sacred  writings  in  many  ways.  It  is  one 
of  the  earliest  apologies  or  defenses  made  by 
the  Christians  to  the  Roman  emperor,  and  is  said 
to  have  been  presented  to  Hadrian  by  an  Athen- 
ian philosopher,  Aristides.  The  discovery  of  the 
Greek  text  was  brought  about  in  an  interesting 
way  through  the  finding  of  the  Syriac  translation 
by  Prof.  Harris.  He  was  carrying  his  monograph 
upon  the  Apology  through  the  press,  and  Prof.  J. 
A.  Robinson,  of  Christ's  College,  Cambridge, 
was  reading  the  proof-sheets  of  the  new  volume. 
Shortly  after  he  was  in  Vienna  turning  over  Latin 
Passionals  in  a  fruitless  search  for  a  lost  manu- 
script of  the  "  Passion  of  Saint  Perpetua,"  and  he 
found  himself  reading  a  Latin  version  of  the  "  Life 
of  Barlaam  and  Joshaphat,"  a  religious  romance 
probably  written  by  St.  John  of  Damascus. 
Prof.  Robinson  detected  a  strange  similarity  of 
thought  and  expression  with  what  he  had  been 


THE   LATER   DISCOVERIES  255 

reading  in  Prof.  Harris'  proof-sheets.  Examining 
more  carefully  he  found  indeed  the  very  words, 
but  in  Latin,  of  tlie  Apology.  This  sent  him  at 
once  to  tlie  works  of  St.  John  of  Damascus,  in 
Greek,  and  there,  incorporated  as  a  part  of  the 
story  of  Barlaam  and  Joshaphat,  he  read  the 
Apology  itself  in  Greek,  diflfering  somewhat  from 
the  Syriac,  but  only  in  inconsiderable  portions. 

The  ^^Diatessaron  "  of  Tatian,  a  harmony  of  the 
four  Gospels,  is  a  most  important  product  of  the 
second  century,  dating  as  early  as  A.  d.  160,  and 
given  now  to  the  English  reader  in  a  translation 
by  the  Rev.  J.  Hamlyn  Hill,  B.  D.,  entitled, 
' '  The  Earliest  Life  of  Christ  ever  compiled  from 
the  Four  Gospels."  A  great  many  references  to 
such  a  work  had  long  been  known  before  it  was 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  modern  world. 
Eusebius,  in  A.  D.  325,  said  :  "  Tatian,  their 
former  leader,  composed  a  sort  of  connection  and 
compilation,  I  know  not  how,  of  the  Gospels,  and 
called  it  the  '  Diatessaron. '  This  work  is  cur- 
rent with  some  persons  even  to  the  present  day." 
This  would  seem  to  imply  that  even  then  the 
work  was  ancient,  and  indeed  an  apocryphal  work 
called  *'The  Doctrine  of  Addai "  supposed  to 
date  before  the  middle  of  the  third  centur>^  said : 
*' Moreover,  much  people  day  by  day  assembled 
and  came  together  for  prayer  and  for  the  reading 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  the  '  Diates- 


256  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

saron, '  "  These  references  might  be  greatly  multi- 
plied, but  it  is  plain  that  by  them  all  the  curiosity 
of  scholars  to  see  the  work  of  Tatian  itself  must 
have  been  great,  and  this  makes  it  the  more 
strange  that  for  a  long  while  a  manuscript  of  it 
in  Arabic  lay  in  comparative  neglect  in  the  Vati- 
can library  at  Rome.  This  Arabic  manuscript, 
numbered  14,  originally  had  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  leaves,  but  the  seventeenth  and  the 
one  hundred  and  eigliteenth  are  now  wanting.  It 
is  supposed  to  have  been  written  in  Egypt  at  some 
time  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fourteenth  century. 
On  the  last  page  the  copyist  has  written  in  Latin : 
"  Here  endeth,  by  the  help  of  God,  the  sacred 
Gospel  which  Tatian  collected  out  of  the  four 
Gospels,  and  which  is  called  the  ^ Diatessaron.'' '' 
The  manuscript  was  brought  to  the  Vatican  about 
A.  D.  1 7 19  by  Joseph  Assemani,  and  short  accounts 
of  it  were  given  by  him  and  others,  but  little  was 
done  to  concentrate  upon  it  the  attention  of  the 
learned  world.  In  1881,  Zahn,  a  German  scholar, 
made  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  ^'' Diatessaron^'^ 
from  the  quotations  from  it  which  were  found 
chiefly  in  the  Commentary  of  Kphraem  the 
Syrian  and  the  Homilies  of  Aphraates,  but  he 
seems  to  have  made  no  use  of  this  manuscript, 
strangely  enough  since  he  referred  to  it  in  his 
publication.  But  Zahn's  words  directed  the 
attention  of  one  of  the  Guild  of  Writers  to  the 


THE   LATER  DISCOVERIES  257 

Vatican  to  the  manuscript,  and  he  announced  his 
intention  of  publishing  it  at  some  future  time. 
This  scholar,  Ciasca,  one  day  showed  the  manu- 
script to  a  visitor  from  the  Bast,  Antonius  Morcos, 
Visitor-Apostolic  of  the  Catholic  Copts,  who  at 
once  said  he  had  seen  a  similar  copy  in  Egypt, 
which  he  could  obtain  for  him.  The  promise  was 
fulfilled,  and  in  1886  the  document  arrived  as  a 
present  to  the  Borgian  Museum  in  Rome.  This 
second  manuscript  dates  from  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, has  three  hundred  and  fifty-five  leaves,  with 
the  eleven  lines  of  writing  inclosed  by  gold,  blue, 
and  red  lines  in  a  rectangle  upon  the  page.  This 
work  was  published  by  Ciasca  in  honor  of  the 
pope's  jubilee,  in  1888,  in  the  original  Arabic,  with 
a  translation  in  lyatin,  the  text  being  based  upon 
a  comparison  of  the  Vatican  and  the  Borgian 
manuscripts. 

The  "  Diatessaron  "  affords  another  witness  to 
the  authorship  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  for  it  begins 
with  the  prologue  of  that  Gospel,  and  thus  proves 
its  use  and  general  acceptance  in  the  time  of 
Tatian,  which  must  throw  back  its  origin  very 
near,  if  not  quite,  to  the  time  that  has  always 
been  claimed  for  it  by  conservative  scholarship. 
In  many  similar  ways  the  work  is  valuable; 
though  simply  as  a  harmony,  in  which  a  correct 
mingling  of  the  four  distinct  stories  is  secured,  it 
is  not  kA  such  value  as  many  modern  attempts. 


m^ 


258  THK  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

And  as  a  testimony  to  the  original  Greek  text,  it 
is  very  insufl&cient,  since  the  Arabic  was  a  trans- 
lation from  the  Syriac,  the  native  tongue  of 
Tatian  and  of  the  churches  for  which  the  har- 
mony was  originally  made.  Some  have  thought 
that  the  Syriac  was  probably  preceded  by  the 
composition  of  the  harmony  in  Greek,  but  of  this 
we  cannot  be  sure.  At  all  events  the  manuscripts 
extant  are  at  least  two  removes  from  the  Greek,  a 
translation  of  a  translation,  and  thus  of  slight 
textual  authority.  But  the  work  is  one  of  highest 
interest  as  the  earliest  attempt  to  bring  the  four 
Gospels  into  one,  and  to  make  the  story  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  a  connected  whole  for  the  use  of 
Christians  in  the  second  century.  It  is  the  work 
of  a  man  whose  whole  history  testifies  to  his  sin- 
cere desire  for  truth,  and  the  consecration  of  all 
his  energies  to  obtain  it. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  discoveries  of  later 
days  is  that  of  the  apocryphal  "  Gospel  and  Apoca- 
lypse of  Peter. "  These  are  but  fragments  found  as 
parts  of  the  same  manuscript,  which  also  contains 
thirty  chapters  of  the  pre-Christian  Greek  Book 
of  Enoch.  The  Apocalypse  is  not  of  very  great 
importance,  but  is  of  great  interest  as  meeting 
predictions  of  its  character  almost  exactly,  for  its 
former  existence  was  known.  It  is  largely  given 
to  descriptions  of  heaven  and  hell,  more  particu- 
larly the  latter,  and  seems  to  be  an  anticipation  of 


THE   LATER   DISCOVERIES  259 

Dante  by  many  centuries.  The  Gospel  alone 
need  hold  our  attention,  and  this  is  valuable  more 
on  account  of  its  testimony  to  the  date  of  the 
canonical  Gospels  than  to  direct  bearing  upon  the 
sacred  text.     The  story  is  as  follows  : 

Akhmim  is  a  large  market  town  in  Upper 
Egypt  upon  the  east  bank  of  the  Nile.  It  is 
upon  the  site  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  cities,  the 
Chemmis  of  Herodotus,  and  was  the  stronghold 
of  the  worship  of  Chem  ;  but  in  Christian  times 
it  became  the  center  of  the  monastic  life  of  the 
region,  and  a  large  Christian  necropolis  begmi  in 
the  fifth  century  shows  the  ecclesiastical  import- 
ance of  the  city  before  the  time  of  the  Arab  inva- 
sion. It  is  said  to  have  a  large  Christian  popula- 
tion at  the  present  day.  During  the  winter  of 
1886-87,  some  workmen  under  the  charge  of  M. 
Grebaut,  who  was  pursuing  researches  for  the 
French  Archaeological  ^lission,  opened  some 
graves,  and  in  one  of  them  found  a  little  book, 
six  inches  by  four  and  a  half,  having  thirty-three 
leaves  of  parchment  roughly  cased  in  leather. 
The  grave  was  of  the  eighth  or  ninth  century,  the 
manuscript  itself  is  of  a  date  not  earlier  than  the 
eighth  century,  while  the  work  it  contains  must 
be  placed  certainly  as  early  as  the  last  half  of  the 
second  century.    The  most  probable  date  is  about 

165. 

The  Gospel  begins  with  the  words,  ..."  But 


26o  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

of  the  Jews  no  one  washed  his  hands,  not  even 
Herod,  nor  one  of  his  judges,  even  of  those  who 
were  minded  to  wash.  Pilate  rose  up,  and  then 
Herod  the  king  commands  the  lyord  to  be  taken 
away,  saying.  What  I  commanded  you  to  do,  do 
to  him."  This,  with  other  passages,  is  taken  as 
evidence  of  an  anti-Jewish  spirit  in  the  writer,  who 
seems  to  lose  no  chance  to  impress  upon  the 
reader  the  guilt  of  the  Jews.  The  fragment  goes 
on  to  narrate  the  story  of  the  passion  and  resur- 
rection of  Jesus,  with  which  alone  it  has  to  do. 
Many  peculiarities  appear.  Some  of  these  are 
thought  to  mark  the  writer  as  one  of  the  Docetse, 
a  heretical  sect  that  arose  very  early,  as  we  have 
evidence  in  the  second  Epistle  of  St.  John,  where 
the  Christian  is  warned  against  those  called  anti- 
Christ,  who  deny  that  Jesus  came  in  the  flesh,  the 
docetic  heresy  asserting  that  his  body  was  only  an 
appearance,  a  sort  of  phantasm  and  not  real  flesh 
and  blood.  In  the  Gospel  of  Peter  such  a  phrase 
as  :  "But  he  was  silent,  as  if  having  no  pain" 
may  have  such  reference,  though  it  does  not  seem 
necessary.  Another  passage  reads :  "  And  the 
Ivord  cried  out  saying,  Power,  my  Power,  hast 
thou  forsaken  me  ?  And  when  he  had  spoken  he 
was  taken  up."  Here  the  word  Power  substituted 
for  God,  and  "he  was  taken  up  "  for  "  he  gave  up 
the  ghost,"  are  peculiarly  docetic,  since  it  was 
taught  that  the  Christ  was  entirely  distinct  from 


THE   LATER  DISCOVERIES  261 

the  man  Jesus,  and  had  descended  upon  him  in 
baptism,  leaving  him  again  before  his  passion. 
But  even  this  is  not  a  necessary  inference,  since 
the  author  may  have  had  in  mind,  perhaps  even 
before  his  eye,  the  Hebrew  or  Aramaic  in  which 
this  cry  even  in  our  Gospels  is  written,  where  the 
Hebrew  word  El  means  strength  and  so  becomes 
the  name  of  the  Omnipotent.  The  Gospel  of 
Peter  does  not  write  the  Aramaic  words  in  the 
text,  as  the  canonical  writers  do  ;  but  it  translates, 
and  losing  sight  of  the  personal  reference  uses  the 
Greek  word  dbva!u^^  or  Power.  But  a  full  discus- 
sion of  the  docetic  tendency  of  the  fragment 
would  require  more  space  than  can  be  given  here. 
Far  more  important  is  the  witness  borne  to  the 
fourth  Gospel.  At  least  five  passages  indicate  a 
reference  to  John,  those  which  refer  to  the  garden 
of  Joseph  (ver.  24) ;  the  Jewish  law  (ver.  5  and  15) ; 
the  nails  piercing  the  hands  (ver.  21)  but  not  the 
feet ;  and  the  account  of  the  breaking  of  the  bones. 
John  is  the  only  one  of  the  four  evangelists  record- 
ing these  things.  It  is  possible  but  not  likely  that 
all  of  these  references  came  from  some  other  source 
now  lost  to  us,  but  the  general  inference  must  be 
that  the  writer  had  the  fourth  Gospel  before  him. 
Prof  Harnack,  however,  finds  it  doubtful  and 
concludes  that  if  he  did  know  the  fourth  Gospel 
he  did  not  pay  much  attention  to  it ;  but  Prof.  J. 
Rendell  Harris  is  of  the  contrary'  opinion ;  Prof. 


26Z  THK  PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

Robinson  declares  the  references  unquestionable ; 
and  Prof.  J.  H.  Thayer  writes  very  strongly  that 
"  half  a  century  of  discussion  is  swept  away  by 
the  recent  discovery  at  a  stroke.  Brief  as  is  the 
recovered  fragment  it  attests  indubitably  all  four 
of  our  canonical  books."  In  fact  the  concurrence 
of  testimony  oflfered  by  this  fragment  and  the 
Diatessaron  of  Tatian  seems  to  close  the  question 
concerning  the  authorship  of  the  fourth  Gospel, 
or  at  least  to  make  it  immeasurably  more  probable 
that  John  wrote  it  rather  than  any  other.  If  the  date 
of  the  gospel  of  Peter  is  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
second  century,  or  considerably  earlier,  it  places 
the  date  of  the  latest  of  the  four  canonical  Gospels 
very  early,  reasonably  within  the  limits  of  the  first 
century.  It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that  Zahn 
and  Hilgenfeld  and  Sanday  had  already  shown 
the  probability  that  Justin  (103  to  168),  must  have 
had  a  fifth  Gospel,  as  well  as  the  four  canonical 
Gospels,  from  which  he  drew  statements  not  to  be 
found  in  our  evangelists.  These  are  found  in  the 
fragment  now  discovered,  and  it  is  most  likely 
that  this  is  the  document  whose  existence  had 
been  conjectured.  Prof  Harnack  shows  that  this 
is  the  fact  by  many  citations,  as  he  also  concludes 
concerning  the  Apocalypse  also  contained  in  this 
manuscript,  that  it  is  not  only  ait  Apocalypse  of 
Peter,  which  we  have  before  us,  but  the  Apoc- 
alypse ot  Peter  which,  at  the  close  of  the  second 


THE   LATER  DISCOVERIES  263 

century  was  known  in  Rome  and  Alexandria,  as 
cited  by  Eusebius  among  the  Aiitilegomeiia- 
Notha^  or  spurious  books.  Harnack  has  divided 
both  the  Gospel  and  the  Apocalypse  into  verses, 
by  which  the  fragments  will  doubtless  be  cited  by 
scholars.  ^ 

The  discovery  of  ancient  manuscripts,  together 
with  valuable  testimony  from  the  monuments  of 
antiquity,  may  be  expected  to  add  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  Bible  every  year,  and  with  ever- 
increasing  frequency  and  amplitude.  Such  docu- 
ments as  the  tablets  discovered  at  Tel  el-Amarna 
and  L/achish  do  not  come  properly  within  the 
scope  of  this  work  ;  but  the  spades  that  are  un- 
covering such  remains  are  frequently  turning  up 
also  documents  on  papyrus  and  parchment,  among 
which  are  many  of  biblical  interest,  as  the  Petrine 
Gospel  and  Apocalypse  found  in  an  Egyptian 
tomb.  In  1891,  many  classical  remains  of  the 
greatest  value  were  found  and  published  besides  the 

1  It  would  be  of  great  interest,  if  space  allowed  the  appearance 
here  of  an  English  translation  of  these  fragments.  Special  and  full 
discussion  of  the  subject  will  be  found  in  Adolf  Hamack's  "  Bruch- 
stucke  des  Evangeliums  und  der  Apokolypse  des  Fetriis,^'  Leipzig, 
1893;  "The  Gospel  according  to  Peter"  and  the  "  Revelation  ot 
Peter,"  two  lectures  by  J.  A.  Robinson  and  M.  R.  James,  London, 
1892;  also  the  original  publication  of  U.  Bouriant  in  the  memorials 
published  by  the  members  of  the  French  Archaeological  Mission  at 
Cairo,  T.,  IX.,  fasc.  I,  1892;  especially  the  important  work  of  H.  B. 
Sweete :  "  The  Gospel  According  to  Peter." 


264  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Petrine  fragments,  the  French  Mission  at  Cairo 
having  published  valuable  Coptic  fragments  con- 
taining passages  ranging  from  Genesis  to  Tobit 
obtained  from  what  are  described  as  "  the  appar- 
ently inexhaustible  treasures  of  the  '  White  Mon- 
astery,' "  while  much  light  has  been  thrown  upon 
many  side  questions  of  biblical  history  and  geog- 
raphy. Altogether  there  is  every  reason  for 
believing  that  each  year  will  add  largely  to  our 
store  of  materials,  from  which  an  intenser  light 
will  be  thrown  upon  the  Bible  from  without,  and 
by  which  a  clearer  and  whiter  radiance  will 
stream  forth  from  the  sacred  pages  themselves. 


XVIII 

ILIvUSTRATlONS  OF  CRITICISM 

nPHE  materials  of  the  science  of  textual  criticism 
^  have  been  the  main  subject  of  the  preceding 
pages  ;  but  the  reader  will  wish  to  know  something 
of  the  processes  by  which  the  scholars,  in  the  use 
of  these  materials,  reach  the  results  which  are 
given  to  the  Christian  world  in  splendid  editions 
of  the  Greek  text  and  the  English  translations, 
which  have  been  published  in  the  last  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century.^  Though  it  can  only  be  a 
glance  into  the  workshop,  we  can  bear  away  some 
knowledere  of  the  craft. 

Having  gathered  the  materials  upon  which  the 
work  is  to  be  done,  the  character  of  all  the  sources 
of  information  must  be  determined.  In  the  earli- 
est times  a  mere  numerical  preponderance  of 
authorities  was  sometimes  deemed  sufficient  to 
settle  a  vexed  question.  With  three  or  four  man- 
uscripts in  the  case,  two  agreeing  would  be  al- 
lowed the  verdict  against  the  one  or  the  two  of 

^  In  this  chapter  examples  of  criticism  in  the  New  Testament  alone 
are  given.  The  same  processes,  mtitatis  mtdandis,  are  applicable  to 
the  Old  Testament. 

265 


266         THK  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

variant  readings.  Plainly  this  was  the  crudest 
kind  of  criticism,  for  the  two  agreeing  might  be 
of  very  inferior  quality,  and  one  of  the  variants 
might  bear  to  the  more  discerning  vision  many 
marks  of  superiority.  Again,  the  antiquity  of  a 
document  has  been  allowed  by  some  scholars  to 
outweigh  almost  every  other  consideration.  But 
the  mere  age  of  a  manuscript  is  not  enough  to 
determine  its  value  for  critical  purposes.  A  docu- 
ment of  later  date  may  be  better  than  one  of  very 
early  date,  because  the  former  may  have  been  pro- 
duced by  the  comparison  of  many  valuable  codices, 
and  its  readings  may  be  the  result  of  great  acu- 
men and  wide  investigation,  by  which  errors  have 
been  eliminated  to  a  large  degree.  It  is  the  same 
consideration  which  makes  the  efforts  of  modern 
scholars  of  any  value.  Why  is  it  possible  that 
the  text  of  Westcott  and  Hort,  or  that  of  Tischen- 
dorf,  or  one  made  up  from  the  combination  of  the 
best  results  of  these  two  editions,  may  be  better 
than  that  of  any  single  copy,  even  the  oldest,  like 
the  Vatican  Manuscript  B  ?  Why  does  Scriv- 
ener say  of  the  Vulgate  that  "it  is  decidedly 
superior  as  an  instrument  of  criticism  to  its  proto- 
type "  in  the  older  Latin  ?  Scrivener  says  it  is 
because  "  it  does  not,  like  its  predecessor,  bring  be- 
fore us  the  testimony,  good  or  bad,  of  documents  of 
the  second  century,  but  only  that  of  manuscripts 
which  Jerome    deemed    correct   and   ancient   at 


II.I.USTRATIONS  OK  CRITICISM  267 

the  end  of  the  fourth. ' '  A  great  many  questions 
are  to  be  asked  concerning  every  witness  before 
the  exact  value  of  its  testimony  is  to  be  finally 
known.  And  the  kinds  of  evidence  that  are 
offered  must  be  properly  distinguished.  It  is  not 
at  all  the  function  of  this  book  to  enter  into  the 
full  exposition  of  the  methods  by  which  textual 
criticism  comes  to  its  conclusions  ;  nor  can  the 
general  rules  by  which  the  science  proceeds  be 
laid  down  here.  It  must  sufl&ce  to  enumerate  a 
few  of  them  only,  as  an  index  to  their  general 
character,  and  then  to  set  before  the  reader  one  or 
two  specimens  of  criticisms  in  which  the  text  of 
a  familiar  passage  is  elucidated.^ 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  of  two  or  more 
readings  the  more  difficult  and  obscure  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  plainer  a7id  simpler  one.  This  rule 
is  based  upon  the  very  reasonable  supposition  that 
any  change  made  from  an  original  passage,  thus 
producing  a  false  reading,  would  be  for  the  pur- 
pose of  throwing  light  upon  a  dark  passage  rather 
than  to  obscure  what  was  already  quite  simple 
and  clear.  For  example  in  Matt.  5  :  22  :  "But 
I  say  unto  you,  that  whosoever  is  angry  with  his 
brother  without  cause  shall  be  in  danger  of  the 
judgment."     A  reference   to   the   Revised  New 

1  The  most  accessible  and,  on  the  whole,  the  best  book  for  the 
beginner  in  practical  criticism  is  Warfield's  "  Textual  Criticism  of  the 
New  Testament,' '  Whittaker,  New  York. 


268  THE  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

Testament  shows  that  the  two  words  "without 
cause  '•'  are  left  out  of  the  text  in  that  version, 
and  the  note  is  put  into  the  margin:  "Many 
ancient  authorities  insert  without  caused  The 
reader's  Variorum  Bible  will  direct  him  to  the 
margin,  where  he  will  find  that  the  uncial  man- 
uscripts D  and  ^*,  the  versions  Old  lyatin, 
Curetonian,  Peshito,  and  Memphitic,  and  two  or 
three  Fathers  contain  the  words,  while  the  Sina- 
itic  and  the  Vatican  manuscripts  omit  them,  as 
also  the  Vulgate  and  several  Fathers.  Of  course 
the  mere  documentary  evidence  in  this  instance  is 
strongly  against  the  words,  and  it  is  enforced  by 
the  canon  in  favor  of  the  harder  reading,  for  it  is 
far  more  likely  that  the  words  without  cause  were 
added  to  explain  the  difiicult  severity  of  the  pas- 
sage, than  that  having  been  originally  there  they 
were  left  out  with  the  result  of  adding  to  the  ob- 
scurity. 

Another  law  is  that  the  style  peculiar  to  each 
author  should  be  used  as  a  test  of  a  varied  read- 
ing. Plainly  an  interpolation  by  a  copyist  would 
be  likely  to  betray  itself  by  its  method  of  expres- 
sion. In  Matt.  12  :  14,  the  three  editors,  lyach- 
mann,  Tregelles,  and  Tischendorf,  change  the 
order  of  the  Greek  words  in  the  received  text  to 
make  them  conform  to  readings  which  are  more 
in  the  style  of  Matthew.  This  canon,  however,  is 
used  with  caution,  for  an  author  might  use  an  ex- 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  CRITICISM  269 

pression  only  once,  and  in  that  case  it  might  seem 
at  variance  with  his  usual  methods  of  thought 
and  speech. 

A  shorter  reading  is  to  be  preferred  to  a  longer^ 
at  least  whenever  the  longer  seeins  to  be  given  in 
explanation  of  the  shorter  for77i.  This  rule  is  of 
near  kin  to  the  one  first  given. 

Readings  which  may  have  arisen  from  contro- 
versial reaso7is  are  to  be  rejected  in  favor  of  those 
that  do  not  bear  that  suspicion.  The  celebrated 
passage  in  i  John  5  :  7,  8,  is  an  instance  in  point, 
where  some  copyist  saw  a  good  chance  to  intro- 
duce the  words  that  would  be  a  strong  support  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  :  "  For  there  are  three 
that  bear  record  in  heaven^  the  Father^  the  Word^ 
and  the  Holy  Ghost^  and  these  three  are  one.  And 
there  are  three  that  bear  witness  i7t  earthy  the 
Spirit  and  the  water  and  the  blood,  and  the  three 
agree  in  one."  The  words  in  italics  are  the  words 
to  be  rejected.  They  are  supported  by  only  three 
very  late  manuscripts  of  little  value,  but  they 
are  omitted  by  }^,  A,  B  ,  and  all  Greek  man- 
uscripts before  the  fifteenth  century  ;  they  appear 
in  African  Fathers  as  early  as  the  fifth  century 
and  in  later  copies  of  the  Vulgate.  Modem  edi- 
tors reject  the  words  without  hesitation. 

Another  common  rule  is  that  the  reading  out  of 
several  is  preferable^  from  which  all  the  rest  may 
have  bee7i  derived^  although  it  could  not  be  derived 


270  THE   PARCHMKNTS  OI^  THK   FAITH 

fro7n  them.  Tischendorf  cautions  against  the  use 
of  this  rule  lest  it  be  easily  abused,  but  it  is  plain 
for  example  that  a  rude  or  defective  sentence 
might  be  more  likely  be  the  original  reading  than 
a  more  polished  one,  especially  if  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  word  or  two  would  accomplish  the  change. 

Attention  must  be  paid  to  the  genius  and  usage 
of  each  several  authority  in  assigning  the  weight 
due  to  it  in  a  particular  instance.  For  example, 
the  Vatican  codex  tends  always  to  the  abridge- 
ment of  the  text,  while  Codex  Bezae  shows  a 
strong  impulse  to  amplify.  If  then  in  a  particu- 
lar instance  B  favors  a  shorter  reading  against 
an  ampler  text  in  several  authorities,  the  ten- 
dency of  B  in  this  direction  must  be  given 
due  weight.  On  the  other  hand  D  amplifies 
largely,  and  there  are  many  readings  in  this 
manuscript  found  nowhere  else.  In  like  manner 
the  character  of  the  versions  and  of  ecclesiastical 
writers  must  be  carefully  considered.  Are  they 
prone  to  admit  easily  a  reading,  and  are  they  care- 
less or  critical  in  the  use  of  their  authorities  ? 

Moreover,  the  genealogical  connections  offnanu- 
scripts  are  of  great  importance.  The  Introduc- 
tion to  Westcott  and  Hort's  Greek  Testament 
declares  that  "  all  trustworthy  restoration  of  cor- 
rupted texts  is  founded  upon  the  study  of  their 
history^  that  is,  of  the  relations  of  descent  or 
affinity  which  connect  the  several  documents." 


ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  CRITICISM  27 1 

The  question  of  the  source  of  a  manuscript,  or  of 
a  whole  group  of  manuscripts,  may  be  a  simple 
one,  or  it  may  be  exceedingly  complex.  But  a 
very  simple  case  may  be  taken  to  explain  the 
force  of  this  law.  Suppose  that  ten  manuscripts 
contain  a  passage,  nine  of  them  agreeing  but  the 
tenth  presenting  a  rival  reading.  Now  the  nine 
manuscripts  may  prove  on  investigation  to  have 
all  been  copied  directly  or  indirectly  from  the 
tenth.  In  that  case  it  is  the  nine  that  show  cor- 
ruption, and  other  things  being  equal  the  one 
document  is  to  be  preferred  to  all  the  others.  On 
the  other  hand  the  nine  may  be  found  to  have 
been  derived  from  still  another  manuscript  not  in 
our  possession,  but  which  must  have  dated  earlier 
than  the  tenth,  and  been  of  superior  quality,  and 
thus  the  reading  of  the  nine  may  be  better  than 
that  of  the  tenth.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the 
genealogical  relations  of  a  document  are  very 
important,  and  presumably  more  so  as  the  com- 
plexity of  the  case  is  increased. 

Still  another  important  question  is  that  concern- 
ing the  class  of  manuscripts  to  which  a  given 
authority  belongs,  as  having  Western  origin  and 
peculiarities,  or  Alexandrine  characteristics,  or  as 
belonging  to  some  other  group  whose  origin  and 
nature  may  have  been  influenced  by  the  prevail- 
ing texts,  habits  of  transcription,  methods  of 
thought,  and  many  other  forces  prevailing  in  the 


272  THE  PARCHMENTS   OF  THK   FAITH 

locality  where  it  arose.  It  is  clear  how  the 
weight  of  authority  must  be  affected  by  such  a 
question  as  this. 

Without  delaying  for  the  further  specification 
of  such  principles  of  criticism,  we  may  pass  at 
once  to  a  few  examples  which  will  show  their 
application  in  the  practical  work.  The  Greek 
will  not  be  quoted,  but  the  English  translation  of 
King  James,  from  which  the  variation  will  be 
marked. 

Matthew  19  :  17.  For  ''  Why  callest  thou  me 
good?  there  is  none  good  but  one,  that  is  God," 
the  editors  Griesbach,  lyachmann,  Tregelles, 
Tischendorf,  Alford,  and  Westcott  and  Hort  read  : 
"  Why  askest  thou  me  concerning  the  good.  One 
is  the  good,"  or  perhaps  it  may  be  translated, 
''  there  is  but  one  that  is  good. "  The  parallel  pas- 
sages in  Mark  10  :  18  and  lyuke  18  :  19  read  in 
the  same  way  as  in  the  Common  version,  and  the 
verse  in  Matthew,  if  it  is  to  be  read  with  these 
editors,  is  the  variant  ;  which  might  mean  either 
that  the  autograph  of  Matthew  was  probably  like 
the  other  two  Gospels  and  became  corrupted ;  or 
that  Matthew  wrote  independently  and  quoted  with 
a  slight  difference.  But  a  change  in  Matthew's 
passage,  supposing  the  common  reading  to  be 
right,  may  have  arisen  from  a  willful  interference 
of  some  copyist,  who  did  not  like  the  appearance 
of  the  verse  as  teaching  the  Son's  inferiority  to 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF  CRITICISM  273 

the  Father,  so  that  this  may  be  a  case  for  the 
application  of  the  rule  against  adopting  readings 
influenced  by  dogmatic  tendencies.  Referring  to 
the  textual  sources  we  find  the  testimony  divided 
as  follows  :  For  the  common  reading,  "  Why 
callest  thou  me  good,"  all  extant  codices  except 
six  support  it,  though  A  is  defective  in  this 
place,  and  two  or  three  omit  a  word,  as  J  omits 
callest,  but  C,  B,  F,  G,  H,  K,  M,  S,  U,  V,  ^,  are 
agreed  ;  so  also  cursives  33  and  69,  and  the 
Peshito,  the  Philoxenian,  the  Thebaic,  the  Old 
Latin  in  some  codices,  and  the  Arabic  versions  ; 
against  the  common  version,  and  in  favor  of  the 
reading,  "Why  askest  thou  me  concerning  the 
good,"  the  greatest  uncials  J<  and  B  agree, 
also  D  and  L,  the  cursives  i,  22,  and  the  Cure- 
tonian  Syriac,  the  Jerusalem  Syriac,  the  Old 
Latin  a,  b,  c,  e,  flf,^'-'  1,  the  Vulgate,  the  ^lem- 
phitic  and  Armenian  versions.  Some  manuscripts 
have  both  readiuQ^s.  It  is  thus  seen  that  while 
the  mere  number  of  codices  favors  the  common 
reading,  the  oldest  and  best  texts  support  the 
reading  of  the  editors.  We  need  not  follow  out 
criticism  of  the  rest  of  the  verse,  as  sufficient  has 
been  said  to  show  the  orounds  for  the  two  readino-s 
in  its  principal  clause,  and  why  the  choice  of  the 
editors  is  made. 

Luke  2  :  14  gives  the  song  of  the  angels  at  the 
Nativity:   "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  and  on 


274  '^^HK   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men."  In  the  Re- 
vised version  we  read  :  "  Glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  and  on  earth  peace  among  men  in  whom 
he  is  well  pleased. ' '  But  two  marginal  notes  are 
added:  "Many  ancient  authorities  read  peace^ 
good  pleasure  among  men^\-  and  "Greek,  men 
of  good  pleasured  It  would  seem  as  if  the  differ- 
ence in  the  original  must  be  very  considerable, 
but  in  fact  it  consists  only  in  the  presence  or  ab- 
sence of  a  single  letter.  The  last  word  of  the 
verse  in  Greek  is  sbdoxCa^  or  eddoxia^,  the  former  is 
a  nominative,  the  latter  a  genitive.  The  first 
question  is  plainly  one  of  the  reading.  What  are 
the  reasons  of  the  revisers  for  reading  "  eudokias," 
of  good  pleasure^  instead  of  "eudokia,"  good 
pleasure?  Now  of  the  five  greatest  uncials  C 
is  defective  in  this  place  ;  but  K  in  the  first 
hand.  A,  B  first  hand,  and  D  read  "  men 
of  good  will,"  but  no  other  Greek  manuscript 
whatever.  All  the  other  uncials,  including  J^ 
as  amended  by  its  seventh  century  corrector, 
and  B  by  the  sixth  century  corrector,  are  for  the 
Common  text,  and  with  them  all  the  cursives 
agree,  and  also  the  Memphitic,  the  three  extant 
Syriac,^  the  Armenian,  and  the  Kthiopic  versions. 
On  the  other  hand  the  Vulgate,  all  the  old  Latin, 

'  As  we  noted  on  p.  241,  the  new  Syriac  Gospel,  discovered  by 
Mrs.  Lewis  agrees  with  these  witnesses ;  especially  important  in  the 
defectiveness  of  the  Curetonian  Syriac. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF   CRITICISM  275 

and  the  Gothic  versions  read  ' '  among  men  of 
good  will."  The  Latin  Fathers  naturally  do  the 
same,  and  the  Greek  Father  Origen  throws  his 
weight  for  the  same  form.  But  apart  from  Origen 
the  almost  unanimous  evidence  of  the  Greek 
Fathers,  twenty-two  of  whom  flourished  before  the 
end  of  the  fifth  century  and  who  must  have  used 
codices  as  pure  as  the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican  manu- 
scripts, is  for  the  common  reading  ' '  good  will 
toward  or  among  men."  The  great  editors,  ex- 
cept Scrivener,  give  their  preference  to  the  read- 
ing of  the  principal  uncials,  eudokias^  although 
the  overwhelming  number  of  authorities  is  upon 
the  other  side.  It  would  seem  that  there  is  some 
room  for  Scrivener's  conjecture  that  the  very  early 
use  of  the  nominative  eudokia  by  so  many  writers 
(ninety-two  places  in  all)  could  hardly  have  been 
possible  unless  some  good  manuscript  had  the 
passage  in  this  form,  while  the  almost  unanimous 
testimony  of  the  later  codices  would  point  in  the 
same  direction.  Possibly  it  was  the  error  of  a 
copyist  which  led  to  the  addition  of  the  single 
letter  ''s"  in  the  Vatican,  the  Sinaitic,  the  Alex- 
andrine, and  the  Bezae  codices,  and  the  question  of 
the  original  reading  may  never  be  wholly  settled. 
But  accepting  the  revisers'  decision  as  to  the 
Greek  reading,  their  longer  translation  is  mani- 
festly for  the  sake  of  clearness.  The  passage,  if 
translated  simply  "  men  of  good  pleasure  "  might 


276  THE   PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

be  taken  to  mean  men  who  are  well-disposed 
toward  each  other,  or  men  who  receive  the  mes- 
sage of  God  with  good  favor.  The  revisers  con- 
sider it  to  refer  to  the  condition  of  mind  of  the 
Deity;  it  is  God's  good  pleasure,  and  therefore 
they  translate  "  peace  among  men  in  whom  he  is 
well  pleased."  Scrivener  contests  both  their  read- 
ing of  the  Greek  and  their  translation,  saying  : 
"  '  Among  men  in  whom  he  is  well  pleased  '  (com- 
pare Ivuke  3  :  22)  can  be  arrived  at  only  through 
some  process  which  would  make  any  phrase  bear 
almost  any  meaning  the  translator  might  like  to 
put  upon  it."  As  the  question  is  thus  left,  the 
passage  is  a  good  one  to  show  how  criticism  is 
itself  sometimes  indeterminate,  and  how  so  slight 
a  variation  as  that  of  a  single  letter  may  array 
authorities  in  almost  hopeless  antagonism.  In 
the  present  instance,  however,  we  may  conclude 
by  regretting  that,  if  the  revisers  are  correct  in 
writing  ' '  peace  among  men  in  whom  he  is  well 
pleased,"  the  old  words  could  not  be  left,  "peace, 
good  will  toward  men,''  for  they  convey  the  same 
thought  of  God's  good  will  in  simpler  and  more 
beautiful  words. 

Mark  16  :  9-20.  The  critical  discussion  of 
this  passage  would  be  far  too  intricate  and  ex- 
tended for  these  pages,  and  the  passage  can  only 
be  referred  to  as  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
all  those  in  dispute.     Codices  J<  and  B,  the  two 


ILLUSTRATIONS  OF   CRITICISM  2/7 

oldest  Greek  manuscripts,  omit  the  verses.  B, 
however,  as  will  be  seen  from  oyxrfac  simile  repro- 
duction facing  this  page,  "betrays  consciousness 
on  the  scribe's  part  that  something  is  left  out, 
inasmuch  as  after  Icpo^ow-o  ydp^  verse  8,  a  whole 
column  is  left  perfectly  blank,"  the  only  blank 
column  in  the  whole  New  Testament  volume. 
X  does  not  show  this  peculiarity.  Only  a  very 
few  unimportant  translations  also  omit  the  words, 
and  the  almost  universal  testimony  of  the  manu- 
script witnesses  except  {<  and  B  is  for  their 
admission.  It  would  seem  possible  that  some 
scribe  left  his  copy  of  Mark  unfinished.  That 
cop}^  became  the  exemplar  for  B  and  {<  and  per- 
haps others  that  are  not  extant,  the  scribes  not 
daring  to  insert  what  did  not  appear  in  their 
exemplar,  but  the  scribe  of  B  indicating  his 
knowledge  of  the  verses  by  leaving  a  column 
vacant.  The  Canterbury  revisers  indicate  their 
doubt  of  the  verses,  and  Tischendorf  and  Hort 
are  decided  in  their  rejection  of  them.  Dean 
Burgon  and  Scrivener,  on  the  other  hand,  are  em- 
phatic for  their  genuineness,  and  many  others 
share  this  opinion.  The  whole  history  of  this 
passage  is  of  the  most  interesting  character.^ 

1  A  discovery  by  F.  C.  Conybeare  of  an  Armenian  manuscript  dated 
in  the  year  986,  seems  to  indicate  that  these  twelve  verses  were  writ- 
ten by  one  Aristion,  "  a  disciple  of  the  Lord"  at  a  very  early  date. 
See  "  The  Expositor,"  Oct.,  1893. 


278  THE   PARCHMENTS  OF  THE   FAITH 

We  conclude  these  examples  with  the  very  in- 
teresting case  of  the  doxology  at  the  close  of  the 
I^ord's  Prayer. 

Matt.  6  :  13.  "  For  thine  is  the  kingdom  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory,  forever.  Amen."  Kven 
in  the  King  James  version  these  words  are  want- 
ing in  the  prayer  as  given  by  lyuke  11:4,  and  a 
reader  of  the  English  might  query  whether  they 
had  been  dropped  inadvertently  from  the  third 
Gospel  or  added  to  the  first  Gospel.  For  the  ad- 
mission of  the  words  in  Matthew,  as  was  pointed 
out  in  speaking  of  the  Codex  Rossanensis 
(page  206),  that  manuscript  of  the  sixth  century 
and  the  Beratinus  of  the  same  century,  but  prob- 
ably a  little  earlier,  are  the  earliest  uncials  to  con- 
tain them.  Their  admission  is  supported  by  many 
other  uncials,  by  far  the  larger  number,  of  which 
L,  is  the  best.  Nearly  all  the  cursives  give  the 
words,  and  the  Syriac,  the  Thebaic,  and  the 
Armenian  versions  also  have  them.  Some  of  the 
versions,  however,  seem  to  hesitate,  as  the  Cure- 
tonian  which  omits  "and  the  power,"  the  The- 
baic which  omits  "and  the  glory,"  and  the 
Old  Latin  which  omits  ' '  the  kingdom  and  the 
glory."  The  Didache  has  the  words,  and  Chry- 
sostom  (398)  includes  them.  But  B,  D,  and  Z 
omit  them,  while  A  and  C  are  defective  and 
bear  no  witness.  The  principal  copies  of  the 
Old  I^atin  and  the  Vulgate  omit  them.     Origen 


ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  CRITICISM  279 

(230)  and  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  (350)  omit  them, 
when  giving  a  very  thorough  exposition  of  the 
prayer.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  highest  uncial 
authority  is  for  omission,  with  only  later  uncials 
and  the  cursives  for  admission,  while  the  versions 
are  perhaps  about  equally  divided  and  the  Fathers 
seem  to  oppose.  But  apart  from  these  sources  of 
information,  the  doxology  appears  in  other  wit- 
nesses as  early  as  the  second  century,  particularly 
in  service  books  in  use  at  a  very  early  date, 
though  in  as  many  differing  forms  as  there  are 
documents  containing  it;  and  this  fact  leads  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  early  found  its  way  into  some 
copies  of  the  Scriptures,  perhaps  about  the  end  of 
the  third  or  the  opening  of  the  fourth  century,  but 
was  very  rarely  met  with  until  a  considerably 
later  time.  It  should  not  appear  as  a  part  of  the 
sacred  text,  and  has  only  its  great  antiquity  and 
the  beauty  of  its  thought  to  recommend  it  as  an 
addition  to  the  prayer  in  modern  use. 

Such  examples  might  be  increased  almost  indefi- 
nitely, if  space  allowed,  but  it  is  clearly  beyond 
the  function  of  the  present  work  to  enter  upon  the 
labors  of  the  critics  save  by  way  of  brief  illustra- 
tion. From  what  has  been  said  the  reader  can 
gain  a  slight  appreciation  of  the  skill  and  toil  by 
which  a  correct  reading  of  the  Bible  is  secured. 


XIX 

CONCI.USION 

IT  would  be  of  special  interest  if  from  this  point 
we  could  go  on  to  trace  the  history  of  the 
various  English  translations  by  which  the  Bible 
has  come  down  to  the  present  time  ;  but  here  the 
stream  is  broad  and  our  boats  are  sailing  on  it 
every  day,  and  our  knowledge  of  it  is  more  easily 
attainable  ;  to  describe  what  is  known  of  this 
part  of  the  great  river  flowing  down  to  us  from 
remote  ages  would  require  a  volume  by  itself.^ 
It  is  only  to  be  noted  in  conclusion  that  the 
tracing  of  the  stream  to  its  sources,  has  proved 
beyond  question  that  the  Bible  comes  to  us  from 
Jesus  and  his  apostles  with  no  substantial  change 
through  all  the  centuries.  That  Jesus  knew  and 
used  the  Old  Testament  as  we  have  it  we  are  sure. 
It  is  a  joy  to  know  that  he  fed  his  spiritual  life 
upon  its  truths,  and  that  when  he  began  "from 
Moses  and  from  all  the  prophets  and  interpreted 
in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  him- 

^  The  reader  can  be  referred  to  no  better  book  of  recent  date  than 
"  The  History  of  the  EngUsh  Bible,' '  by  Prof.  T.  Harwood  Pattison. 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society. 
280 


CONCLUSION  281 

self,"  ^  he  appealed  to  no  strange  book,  or  to  pages 
that  were   then   essentially  different  from   what 
they  are  now,  but  to  these  same  writings  that  are 
before  our  eyes,  although  now  every  man  reads 
them  "  in  his  own  language  wherein  he  was  born." 
And  to  have  traced  the  testimony  for  the  New 
Testament ;  to  have  found  that  we  have  to  rely 
concerning  it  upon  no  mere  theories,  but  on  his- 
toric facts ;  to  have  had  recourse  to  the  various 
documents  preserved  often  by  almost  miraculous 
means ;  to  have  tested  the  various  readings  and 
elucidated    every    passage,    detecting    even    the 
slightest  marks  of  deviation  whether  in  accent,  or 
spelling,  or  serious  interpolation,  or  careless  omis- 
sion ;  to  have  collected  a  vast  mass  of  evidence  to 
the  competent  exactness  of  the  text,  and  to  have 
noted  how  discovery  after  discovery  has  confirmed 
the  dates  of  our  Gospels  and  Epistles  as  comprised 
within  the  apostolic  time  ;  this  has  brought  to  us 
a  reasonable  faith,  that  cannot  be  shaken,  in  the 
later  revelation  which   was   given  to  teach   the 
world  that   "God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world   unto   himself."     As   Tischendorf  wrote  :^ 
**  A  single,  well-established  fact  weighs  more  in 
the  scale  of  good  sense  than  the  most  dazzling 
wit,  the  most  ingenious  sophistr}^  with  which  they 

1  Luke  24:  27. 

2  "  When  our  Gospels  were  Written,"  translated.     American  Tract 
Society,  p.  131. 


282         THK  PARCHMENTS  OF  THK   FAITH 

torture  and  twist  the  facts  which  occurred  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago."  It  is  easy  to  start  with  a 
theory,  as  many  have  done  concerning  the  date  of 
the  fourth  Gospel,  assigning  to  it  a  very  late  origin 
which  would  remove  it  far  from  the  lifetime  of 
the  apostle  whose  name  it  bears,  and  by  similar 
assumptions  support  the  theory  until  a  fabric  is 
built  up  that  may  seem  fair  and  strong  to  those 
who  have  little  opportunity  to  prove  its  weakness. 
But  it  is  hard  to  do  all  this  in  the  light  of  cold, 
well-ascertained  facts.  The  historical  method  of 
study  in  this  department  has  strengthened  im- 
measurably the  grounds  for  our  confidence  in  the 
Bible,  so  far  as  its  genuineness  and  authenticity 
are  concerned.  Of  course,  apart  from  this  ques- 
tion is  that  other  ground  for  belief  in  the  Script- 
ure, which  is  quite  enough  for  their  acceptance  as 
authoritative  in  all  matters  of  spiritual  instruction, 
that  they  actually  are  sufficient  for  the  satisfaction 
of  our  souls  in  this  respect ;  they  actually  build  up 
character  and  set  before  men  the  highest  ideals  ; 
they  are  quite  competent  for  the  ethical  advance- 
ment of  society  ;  in  all  matters  essential  to  real 
godliness,  they  never  fail  to  lead  the  soul  aright, 
revealing  Gk)d's  saving  love  and  redeeming  power 
in  Jesus  Christ.  But  the  calm  scholar  lays  his 
hand  upon  the  pages  that  teach  thus  and  through 
the  toil  of  a  lifetime  shows  us  that  they  really 
came  from  holy  men  of  God,  who  walked  under 


CONCLUSION  283 

the  shadow  of  the  Almighty.  They  were  men 
who  lived  in  the  midst  of  the  stirring  scenes  of 
which  they  wrote.  They  were  men  who  walked 
with  Jesns  "the  blessed  fields"  of  Palestine  and 
heard  from  his  own  lips  the  words  he  uttered. 
And  it  is  something  of  the  highest  value  to  every 
one  who  feels^  as  well  as  to  those  whose  critical 
faculties  are  largely  developed,  to  know  that  the 
very  words  of  testimony  of  these  men  have  come 
down  to  us  in  their  essential  integrity.  "  That 
which  was  from  the  beginning,  that  which  we 
have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes,  that  which  we  beheld  and  our  hands  have 
handled  concerning  the  word  of  life  (and  the  life 
was  manifested,  and  we  have  seen,  and  bear  wit- 
ness, and  declare  unto  you  the  life,  the  eternal 
life  which  was  with  the  Father  and  was  manifested 
unto  us)  ;  that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  de- 
clare we  unto  you  also  that  ye  also  may  have  fel- 
lowship with  us  :  Yea,  and  our  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father  and  with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
these  things  we  write  that  our  joy  may  be  fulfilled. " 
These  sentences,  written  by  the  Apostle  John  in 
his  first  epistle,  express  the  truth  in  few  words. 
In  this  very  passage  the  critics  read,  as  it  is  here 
quoted,  "that  oicr  ]oy  may  be  fulfilled,"  while  the 
Authorized  version  reads  in  more  familiar  way, 
"  ^2Xyour  joy  may  be  fulfilled."  The  testimony 
is  about  equally  divided  ;  but  surely  it  is  indeed 


284  THE  PARCHMENTS   OF  THE   FAITH 

for  the  joy  both  of  the  writer  and  the  reader,  that 
what  was  written  should  spring  from  intimate, 
personal  acquaintance  with  Jesus,  and  should  be 
given  accurately  to  the  follower  of  Christ.  The 
joy  is  only  enhanced,  if  through  all  the  Christian 
centuries  the  word  has  come  down  to  us  unharmed. 
It  is  of  this  that  we  are  assured.  With  radiance 
undimmed  by  the  lapse  of  the  ages,  God's  word 
is  still  ' '  a  lamp  unto  our  feet  and  a  light  unto  our 
path." 


INDEX. 


PARE 

Abbot,  Ezra:  cited 155 

life  of 166 

Abgarus:  letter  of... HO 

Akhmini 259 

Alexandria 17,36,  83 

Alexoudis 210 

Alford 175,  224,  272 

Allix,  Peter 199 

Ammonias 142 

Antonelli 175 

Apocrvpba 20,21 

Aquila:  Greek  version  of. 90-93 

identified  with  Onkelos 97 

Aramaic:  in  Palestine 14 

origin  of -    14 

no  written  Bible  in 26 

slight  use  of,  in  Hebrew  Bible  16 
influenceof,on  Greek  in  Bible.  227 

Aristides:  apology  of. 238,  254 

Armenian  Version 230,  247 

Augustine 231 

Babylon 50 

Barnabas:  Epistle  of. 34, 187 

Barrett 218 

Bashmuric 246 

Battifol 210,  211 

Benton 225 

Beza 201 

Bible:  origin  of  Greek 20 

order  in,  of  lx)Oks  in  Hebrew.  24 
order  in,of  Jesus  and  apostles.22, 26 
of  early  church 28 


PAGE 

Bilile:  early  hostility  to 37 

first  printed 152 

Bradshaw 214 

Bryennios 250 

Callistratos 190 

Canon:  Old  Testament 25 

New  Testament.- 34,  38,  39 

human  determination  of. 35 

Canterbury  Pvevision 203,  274,  277 

Carthage..! 230 

Catherine,  St. :  Convent  of. 131,  181 

189,  238 

Chapters  144 

Chark ~ 223 

Ciasca 257 

Cilento 205 

Clement 34, 196,250 

Codex :  of  Old  Testament 77-80 

Alexandrinus 34,  154, 19»-198 

illustration  of       138 

Basiliensis 221 

Bez« 201-204,  236,  270 

Beratinus 210,213 

Claromontanus ?04 

Coislinianus 215 

Dublinensis 218 

Ephrsemi 145 

described 198-200, 219 

Friderico  Augustanus,  182, 183, 189 

Leicestrensis 223 

Montfortianus 222 

Mosquensis 215 

2S5 


286 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Codex:  Number  33 221 

Number  95 224 

Purpureus 206,  212 

K 217 

Kegius 211 

Eossanensis 140 

described 204-211 

illustration 209 

Ruber 214 

Sinaiticus 131 

attempt  to  discredit 132 

description  of 179-193 

Vaticanus:  described 171-179 

illustrations  of. 171,  276 

Wd 214 

illustration  of 215 

Complutensian  Polyglott 152 

Constantine 192 

Copyist 61, 122-131,  243 

Cozza 177 

Criticism:  science  of.. 150,  151 

illustrations  of 265-279 

Culture:  in  first  three  centuries...    36 

Jewish  centers  of 50 

after  Christ 53, 108, 150 

Cureton 217,  236 

Curetonian  Syriac 230 

Cursive 138,  139,  147,  2'20-225 

Cyprian 230 

Diatessarou 141,  237,  241,  253,  262 

Didache 251,  278 

Duchesne,  Abbe  du 210,  213 

Ephraem  Syrus 145, 198,  256 

Erasmus 153,  221,  222 

Ethiopic  Version 320 

Eusebius 109,  143,  151,  192,  206,  255 

Euthalius 143 

Evangelistaria 140 

Ezra 7 

Fathers :  earliest  writings  of. 34 

value  of. 148 

names  of,  abbreviated 148 

quotations  from 247-249 


PAGE 

Fathers:  list  of. 24 

Faust  137 

Ferrar  group  of  MSS 210 

Fragments 212-216 

in  book-bindings 215,  219 

Frauds 131-137 

detection  of  certain 136 

Gebhardt 204 

Gemara:  origin  of 54,95 

description  of 105-107 

Gibson,  Mrs.  M.D 237-242,  244 

Giobertine  Tincture 200,  219 

Grebaut 259 

Greek :  in  Palestine 17 

the  world's  language 18 

translations  in 81 

affected  by  Aramaic  and  He- 
brew   227 

in  Egypt 245 

Gregory,  C.  R 162, 191 

Griesbach 214,  272 

Gothic  Version 230 

Gutenberg 137 

Ilaggada 103 

Halacha 103 

Ilarnack 204,261-263 

Harris,  J.  R 191,  210,  219,  225,  238 

244,  254,  261 

Hebrew:  a  sacred  language 14 

in  formal  speech 16 

earlier  and  later  forms  of. 55 

vowels  in 55 

gradual  change  in 57 

example  of  use  of  vowels  in. ...    58 

reading  of  Gen.  47  :  31 60 

Hermas,  Shepherd  of 34, 189 

Hippolytus 204 

Huntington,  R 235 


Ignatius , 


Jerome 93, 113-118, 151,  231,  232 

Jerusalem  Syriac 230 


INDEX 


287 


Jonathan:  Targum  of.. 
Justin 


Keri  and  Kethib 63 

Lachmann 157, 158,  232,  268,  272 

Lascar 199 

Latin:  European,  Ital.,  Vul 230 

African  229,  231 

Lectionaries 140 

Lewis,  Mrs.  A.  S 191,  237-242,  244 

Lightfoot 101,246 

Lucar,  Cyril 195 

Lyons 202 

Manuscripts :  see  also  Codex. 

earliest  modes  of  writing 41 

variations  of 41 

materials  of. 43,  145 

destruction  of. 44 

vitiated  by  errors 45 

strangely  rescued 212 

in  America 225 

Old  Testament 40 

late  date  of 77 

agreement  of  text  of 64 

classes  of. 66,  67 

number  of. 67 

of  various  kinds 77-80 

appearance  of. 80 

illustrated 140 

age  of 144 

number  of  uncial 146 

signs  of 147 

cursive. 147 

places  of 148 

Marcion 37 

Massorah 54 

Massoretes 55,  58,  60,  64 

Medici 199 

Memphitic  Version 230,  245 

Milman:  on  the  Vulgate 114 

Minuscules 138,  220 

Miflhna .54,  95, 103 


PAGE 

Moabite  Stone 55 

Monks 190,  216,  245,  246 

Muratori 37 

New  Testament :  growth  of 30 

Gospels  of,  lost 32 

earliest  writings  of. 33 

first  so  called 38 

modern  editions  of,  in  Greek..    41 

materials  for  text  of 119-136 

abundance  of  textual  author- 
ity for 119 

principal    sources    of   manu- 
scripts of. 120-122 

their  places 148 

MSS.  of. 138-149 

Nitrian  Desert 235,217 

Old  Testament:  growth  of. 47 

completion  of 53 

reverence  for 53 

Onkelos:  Targum  of. 97 

Origen :  his  Hexaplar ...S7-S9, 115 

father  of  criticism 151 

Palestine:    languages    of,    illus- 
trated by  modern  examples    19 

Palimpsest 145,  146,  217 

Papyrus 43 

Patmos 210,  213 

Peshito 109-111,  230,  242 

Peter:  Apocalypse  of 37 

Gospel  and  Apocalypse  of 258 

Praxapostoloi 140 

Philoxenian  Syriac 230 

Printing 137 

Robinson 262 

Rossano 204 

Sakkelion 213 

Samaria _...  68-71 

Samaritan  Pentateuch. ..47,67,68, 72-74 

textual  value  of. 74,75 

Schaff,  Philip 189 


288 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Schceflfer 137 

Schulati 204 

Scribes 46,  51,  61 

Scriptorium 122 

Scrivener:  life  of 168,169,204 

Septuagint:  origin  of 13 

in  Palestine 20 

the  Bible  of  Jesus  and  Apos- 
tles  ...11-27 

description  of 82-90 

manuscripts  of. 89 

Shapira 135 

Siloam,  Pool  of:  inscription  at 56 

Simonides 132-135 

Sinai 180,184,  238 

Sopherim,  Tract  of. 62 

Stanley,  A.  P. :  on  the  Septuagint,    90 

Stichometry 143, 144 

Synagogue:  Hebrew  used  in 15 

predecessor  of  churches 52 

Great  Synagogue 52 

Talmud 54,  94,  100,  245 

Targum 94 

origin  of. 95,  96,  245 

of  Onkelos 97 

of  Jonathan 98 

Tatian 141,  241,  255,  257 

Tattam 216,  217,  235 

Teaching  of  the  Twelve,  The....251-253 
278 

Tertullian 230 

Textus  Receptus 153 

Thayer,  Prof.  J.  H 262 

Thebaic  Version 230,  245 

Thecla,  St 196 

Theodotion:  Greek  version  of...  90,  93 

Tischendorf 87,  132,  133,  154 

life  of.....  158-163, 175,  176,  179,  183 
185,  200,  204, 214, 238, 268, 272, 281 

Toledo:  MSS.  of. 76 

Tregelles 154 

life  of 163-166, 175,  219,  222, 224 

232,  268,  272 


PAGE 

Uncial 188, 139 

number  of  manuscripts  in 146 

Variations  in  readings 41, 155 

Vatican  Library 171 

Vercellone 175, 177 

Verses  14# 

Versions:  need  of 229 

value  of. 147,  226-228 

signs  of, 148 

described 226-247 

dates  of. 229,  23U 

Arabic  Ill 

Armenian 247 

Aquila's  Greek 90-93 

Bashmuric  246 

European  Latin 231 

Ethiopic 230,  247 

Gothic 230,  247 

Itala 115,  231,  232 

Italian  Latin 230-232 

Memphitic 245,  246 

Old  Latin 112,  229-232 

Septuagint  Greek 13,  20,  23,  82- 

90,89 

Syriac 109-111,  218,  230 

Jerusalem 230,  244 

Curetonian 233,  241 

Peshito 230,  233,  242 

Harclean 230,  244 

Philoxenian 230,243 

Lewis  Codex 237-242 

Thebaic 245,246 

Theodotion's  Greek 90-93 

Vulgate  Latin 112, 152,  230,  232 

Vowel  Points 58,  59 

Westcott  and  Hort's  Greek 189,  266 

270,  272 
Writing :  early  art  and  remains  of.    42 

Ximenes 152 

Zouche,  Lord  de  la 224 


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